


Welcome to Frost's!

by TheAnonymousMystery



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Blood and Violence, Bullying, Depression, F/M, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Non-Graphic Violence, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-12 14:02:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 52,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19947346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAnonymousMystery/pseuds/TheAnonymousMystery
Summary: While collaborating with the Royal Scientist W. D. Gaster on his latest experiment, his lab assistant, Alphys, had begun to take quite the interest in their financier of their operation–an ice elemental by the name of Frost. When Dr. Gaster begins to perceive the harmless flirting as a threat, Alphys gets kicked to the curb, stripped of her title as scientist and assistant.After learning of her termination, Frost takes in Alphys and attempts to help her get back on her feet. He quickly realizes that the nasty rumors about Alphys’ termination are keeping her from getting a new job to support herself. To help her over such a hurdle, Frost gives her a new job: Working for him at his very own restaurant!Indebted to the wealthy entrepreneur, Alphys works her hardest at the new occupation to show her thanks to the man who gave her a fresh, new beginning. The road ahead is rocky, with trouble always showing up at the worst times. Despite this, Alphys still tries her best to keep her head held up and do what she can for Frost. Only time will tell if she’s strong enough to last…(Co-created with Tumblr user FrostTheElemental! Check out welcometofrosts.tumblr.com for artwork and author's notes/updates!)





	1. Chapter 1

_“Seriously?! You’re going to throw a little bitch-fit over something as stupid as this!?”_

_“Who was the one who was jeopardizing our experiments with their inappropriate behaviors?”_

_“ **Inappropriate**!?”_

A heavy sigh escaped the now former lab assistant as she stared into the little rut she’d mindlessly dug up with her claw. She couldn’t believe this had happened to her... kicked to the curb, and for what? Because she’d flirted with their financier? Because she’d stood up for herself when her boss had confronted her? What a load of bullshit.

_“I don’t see what the big deal is! You act like I was doing this intentionally to sabotage our experiment!”_

_“You’re telling me that you **weren’t**?”_

_“Ex **cuse** me!?”_

_“Dear little Alphys, you’re telling me that the entire time you were trying to coax Mr. Frost to your bed, it never once dawned on you what detrimental consequences your actions would have?”_

_“‘ **Coax him into my bed!?** ’ Are you fucking **kidding** me!? For the last fucking time, I was **not** trying to sleep with him! All I did was flirt with him a little!”_

The monster pulled her glasses off of her face. Smudged lenses... She pinched a piece of her clothing to clean off her lenses. The moment she pulled the fabric towards her skirt, a grimace appeared. Her clothes were _filthy_ , covered in the dirt and grime of Hotland. Having to live without a home was something she was still adjusting to. No home meant no safe shelter for her to return to. It meant no showers and no clean clothes to wear, and absolutely nothing to her name except whatever she had on her person. 

With a sigh, she released her clothes and placed the dirty glasses back on her face. Until she could find a spot where she could bathe in peace, she was going to be stuck toting around disgusting clothing for quite some time. Perhaps she’d be able to find an abandoned corner of Waterfall that she could use as her new bathroom... and maybe her new home, too.

_“To ensure that this... **situation** does not occur any more, I have decided that from this day forward, you are no longer allowed to partake in discussions with Mr. Frost... and I don’t just mean the meetings.”_

_“ **What**?!”_

_“I don’t want you speaking to him at all. Any time he is to visit, you will go down into the lab and you will remain there until I say so.”_

_“ **Hell** no, I am **not** doing that!”_

_“I beg your pardon?”_

Alphys took another bite into the apple core she’d found. Another great “benefit” of getting to live without anything to her name: scavenging for food. She’d been thrown out of the lab–her _home_ –with nothing more than the items in her pockets and the clothes on her back. She didn’t often carry her entire savings on her at one point, meaning when she was thrown out, all she had to her name was a little less than two hundred gold. 

She’d spent nearly all the gold she’d had on some supplies to help her survive on her own–a drawstring bag, a jacket, and a can opener. That had pretty much wiped her wallet clean. All that was left was a measly six pieces of gold. That wasn’t even enough to buy a Sea Tea. She had to rely solely on finding food that others had discarded to eat. Easier said than done. Thankfully, due to Hotland’s high living costs, most of the wealthier citizens of the Underground lived in its limits. That meant monsters who didn’t feel the need to finish off every bite of food that they got their hands on, which for Alphys meant more food that she was likely to find sitting in the trash.

After her rounds that night, she’d managed to pilfer a decent meal–an expired can of beans, a half-eaten bag of chisps, and an apple core. She’d already finished off the beans, and had eaten what she could of the apple remains. She’d decided it was best to hang onto the chisps, just in case the next day’s food supply was short. Better safe than sorry.

_“Believe it or not, there is such a thing as love, Gaster! Just because **you’ve** never experienced it, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t **exist**! I really like Frost, and based on our interactions, he’s taking an interest in me, too! But because you’ve got your head so far up your **ass** , you’re determined to break us apart!? You want me to just pretend like he never existed?! You’re going to make me look like the **asshole** by demanding I stay hidden and never talk to him again!? **Hell** no!”_

_“Oh poor, naive Alphys. What you’re feeling is not love. You barely know Mr. Frost. How can you say that you’re in love with him? Do you know his likes? His dislikes? His hobbies? How about his favorite book? His favorite past-time? His favorite food?”_

_“...”_

_“Of course you don’t know any of that. This is because you don’t know Mr. Frost like you **think** you do. You know **nothing** about him.”_

_“Perhaps I could get to know him more if someone wasn’t so determined to keep us away from each other.”_

Spitting up the seeds, Alphys finished off the last of what was left of the apple. It would’ve been much nicer to have a _fresh_ apple, but beggars can’t be choosers. She placed the little seeds in the rut she’d made, covering them back up with soil and packing it nice and neat. The soil in Hotland was very hard. Given that nearly all water evaporated in a matter of minutes, it made the soil rock solid. Not that she figured the seeds would grow anyways. They’d need sunlight, water, air, and most importantly, someone to protect them from being ripped apart by another monster.

_“It seems as though you will not listen to any sort of logic or reasoning. Despite my numerous orders, you seem too set in your ways. I cannot risk having you toy with our financier and risking having our funding cut off should things not work out between him and his little ‘mistress.’”_

_“Ugh–!”_

_“Therefore I have no choice but to terminate you.”_

_“Wait, **what**?!”_

_“As of this moment, you are no longer my lab assistant. You are no longer welcome on the premises.”_

_"Are you **serious**!? You’re kicking me out?! Over flirting with your coworker?!”_

_“Hand over your lab coat and leave at once.”_

_“At once?! You mean you’re not even going to let me gather my things?!”_

_“Exactly. Now, hand over your lab coat and leave, or I will remove you by force.”_

With the seeds resting snugly beneath the soil, Alphys took a good look at the empty bean can. Perhaps with enough supplies she might be able to turn the can into something useful. However, with her lack of tools, chances were that she wasn’t going to be making said item very soon. A few days following the events between her and Gaster, she’d seen him toss her belongings into one of the nearby dumpsters. She’d managed to grab a few things, but given her limited inventory space, she couldn’t take much. Her cellphone, scalpel, a DVD, and a small photo album were the items she’d opted to take, and had to leave everything else behind. She didn’t really have much of an alternative, especially with no home to return to.

With her can in hand and her bag on her back, the small lizard decided to head out. She couldn’t stay in one place for too long. Thanks to the king’s law, the Underground was _teeming_ with lowlifes who were always roaming the place, ready to prey on the weak an innocent. She did not want to get caught by them, especially in her state. She was practically defenseless–with no proper training, and not much for weapons at her disposal, it would be near impossible to fight off anyone who happened to stumble across her. Not to mention, her yellow scales against certain environments practically painted a target on her—

“Well, well, well...” A low growl came, a shady-looking Rat monster cut her off as she turned the corner. “If it isn’t Hotland’s little _whore_...”

**TOO LATE.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Over a week has passed since Alphys was kicked out of the lab. She’s done her best to adjust to the new lifestyle, but certain aspects are still proving to be a struggle.

Day number eight.

In all honesty she was surprised she’d managed to last _this_ long. She’d thought for sure that she would have been axed off by this point. Perhaps she was stealthy enough to avoid other monsters. Or at least, that’s what she _wanted_ to believe. The cracked lenses that now adorned her face were proof that she, in fact, was _not_ as clever and sneaky as she thought she was. 

Word seemed to spread pretty quickly about her termination as lab assistant. Every monster that decided to attack her made sure that some kind of derogatory name was thrown out before assaulting her. Slut, whore, prostitute, cunt–she’d heard it all. Despite the tough front she’d put out, those words continued to tear her down each and every time. It was completely unfair—She hadn’t slept with _anybody_! She’d never even taken a piece of clothing _off_ in front of another! Yet now everyone believed she was nothing more than a walking STD. She’d even begun taking extra precautions to make sure that she’d minimize her encounters. After all, with how _disgusting_ these words were getting, it wouldn’t be long before someone would try to rape her. _That_ thought scared her more than anything else.

It was a miracle that she’d survived long enough to get as far as she had. She’d migrated into Waterfall territory, finding herself a small little alcove behind one of the many waterfalls in the area. There wasn’t a whole lot of space, but there was enough for sleeping room and a place to store her extra food, what little it was. The falls were thick enough that no other monster would have seen her sleeping back there. She even took it a step further, and added extra precautions to ensure she wasn’t found.

Alphys had been working to camouflage herself further by sealing her small alcove off. A metal wall created from the scraps she could find at the Dump were attached via whatever nails and bolts she could find. On the outside, a mixture of rock, soil, and other products coated the walls, making them blend seamlessly with Waterfall’s natural ones. All she needed was a metal door with the same camouflage to her new little fort and her home would be complete... or rather, as complete as she could make it given her situation. For now, all she could manage was a wooden slab that she could slip in front of her door when she needed.

As she finished screwing in one of the nails to her makeshift wall, she leaned back, letting out an exhausted sigh as she wiped her brow. It was hard enough building from scratch without any electric tools, but given that all of her tools supplies were banged-up and half-rusted made the endeavor that much more of a struggle. 

Putting her makeshift door up for the night, Alphys snatched a can from her food stash and snuggled up in her sleeping niche. She tucked herself in, using her jacket as a blanket, and peeled open her can. A grimace appeared as soon as the smell hit her nose. 

_Anchovies_. 

God, her hideaway was going to reek of this stench for a while, but there wasn’t really much she could do about it. She needed food, and unfortunately the anchovies were one of the only options she had at the moment. She was going to have to restock the next day. Her astronaut food and her one cup of instant noodles weren’t going to last her long. 

Hesitantly, she slipped the first anchovy into her mouth. A visible shudder was made as the slimy fish made its way down her throat. This was absolutely _disgusting_ , but it was better than _nothing_. One by one, they slithered down her throat, the lizard having to use all of her willpower to not throw up everything she was putting into her stomach. A part of her wondered if the fish were naturally this slimy or if it was the preservative juices that made them this way. Either way, she knew that the moment she got back on her feet she would never touch these god-forsaken _things_ ever again.

Once the entirety of the can had been emptied she set the tin aside. She lowered herself onto the moist dirt, setting her glasses to the side of her. She could feel some of the dirt getting underneath of her scales. It was mildly irritating, but nothing she couldn’t wash out in the waterfall the next day. She did her best to ignore it, curling in on herself to retain as much heat as she could during the night.

All she hoped was that the next day would bring her more success than today.

* * *

Three hours was certainly longer than she’d hoped to spend out at the dump. Though she’d grabbed a few pieces of metal while out, her main priority had been to find food. Thus, she spent most of her time digging around for whatever canned goods she could find. After all, they’d last longer and they were bound to fill her up more than any bits of food she could find hiding in other monster’s trashcans. Not that there were many residents in Waterfall who’s garbage cans she could pilfer from.

After having finally finished pilfering for the day, Alphys pulled the drawstring bag full of her finds across her back and began making her way back home. Unfortunately her bag had gotten too heavy with all of the cans inside of it. She could already feel herself trying to catch her breath, and she wasn’t even halfway home! She was going to have to stop for a rest. It was either that or risk wearing herself out trying to get home quickly and then running into a thug while completely exhausted and out of breath.

She wandered to and fro, searching for a small little hiding spot to use while she rested up. These searches would have been so much easier had her glasses not been broken during one of her encounters. While they hadn’t quite shattered to pieces, the missing half of the lens made it much harder for her to see where she was going. Close up items were no problem to distinguish, but distant objects were a _whole_ different story.

Back and forth, back and forth... no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find a single resting place. Perhaps if she was lucky she might stumble across a good resting place–

“So this is where thou hath been?”

The reptile nearly jumped out of her scales when she’d heard the voice behind her. Of _all_ of the people she could have run into...!

Alphys meekly turned around to face _him_. The one who’d changed her entire life, the man who she developed a crush on during her scientist career. The gentleman who she defended her relationship with... and ultimately the monster who made her lose everything.

_Frost_.

She couldn’t bring herself to look at the elemental. She’d anticipated this encounter for a while, but she had no idea it would happen so _soon_. She’d at least hoped that things would have gotten a _little_ better before having to see him again. That way he didn’t have to see her like _this_ , looking like the pile of garbage that she’d just spent the earlier part of the day swimming through—quite literally.

Alphys’s eyes slowly drifted away from the icy figure in front of her, her gaze moving closer to her bare feet with each passing moment. Several scenarios had already played through her mind about what would happen in this very moment. He would mock her, laugh at how gullible she was to fall for his tricks and harass her about losing it all for some _fleeting_ feelings she’d had. He would berate her, find her to be nothing but an obstacle now that she’d lost her connections to royalty and would toss her aside like a gum wrapper. He would have heard the rumors going around and would believe them without a second thought, accusing her of trying to seduce him into bed just like Gaster had. If she were lucky, he would console her, help her in some kind of fashion and allow her to get back on her feet, but that was probably pushing it.

Part of her wanted Frost to rescue her, to save her from the suffering she was going through. Another part wanted him to walk on by and pretend she never existed. After everything she had been through, _everything_ she’d been wrongly accused of, she felt like she didn’t deserve _anything_ from _any_ monster.

Moments passed, and although Alphys never once met his eyes again she could feel his stare burning her skin as his gaze remained locked on her. Just when she thought he’d finally stop and leave her be, she could feel his footsteps draw closer to her. Her pulse accelerated faster and faster as the gap between them closed. She wanted to run, to flee back to her “home” as fast as she could, but with her drained energy, she knew it would be an impossibility. He would catch up to her, no matter how fast she ran.

Finally, only inches away, Frost stopped, the red ice cube towering a good foot or more above her. She braced herself, ready for some kind of attack. A slap across the cheek, spit in her face, _something_. The uncomfortable air between them only made her anxiety that much more prominent.

“Thou looketh like a homeless wench.”

Though his choice of words had been less ideal, the tone he’d spoken in had no hostility in it whatsoever. Though it was nice that she hadn’t been handled roughly (at least, not yet) like she had with the other monsters, she still couldn’t gauge his feelings towards her. A few moist footsteps worked their way around her. 

“Follow me.”

It was with those few words that Alphys finally found the courage to look back up at Frost. Follow him? What for? Where was he going to take her? What was he going to do when they got to their destination? Was he mad at her? Was he annoyed? What in the world was going on–?

“Well?” The elemental’s voice snapped her out of her inner-ramblings. Frost had stopped a few feet ahead of her, head turned back to her. “Art thou coming or not?”

With a stifled gasp, Alphys quickly followed the entrepreneur. She stayed close, but not _too_ close. She knew she was filthy and smelled like musty trash, a polar opposite of the clean suit and tie he wore. She’d probably be _beheaded_ for even _attempting_ to get too close to him. However, she made sure that she stayed just close enough that he wouldn’t question whether or not she was following, and so she wouldn’t lose track of him as they were walking.

She wasn’t sure where he was planning to take her, but wherever that happened to be couldn’t be any worse than what she was already going through.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frost has found the homeless Alphys and welcomed her into his home. Despite being rescued, Alphys is still feeling lost and unsure of where to go.

“Here we are.”

Frost’s home was somuch _bigger_ than Alphys could have _ever_ imagined it would be. Even just walking up to it, Alphys was left in complete shock by its size and grandeur. Not surprisingly, Frost happened to live in one of the wealthiest districts in the Capital, where the one percent of the Underground lived. 

Though his house’s exterior looked like something right out of the history books, the inside looked _very_ modern. Right through the doorway, Alphys senses were overwhelmed with beautiful paintings and what looked to be a newly furbished carpet. She almost didn’t want to step on it, worried that her dirty feet would tarnish it. However, her fear of being reprimanded if she didn’t follow Frost pushed her into the house alongside him.

The elemental guided her down the entry hallway into the living room. The first thing she spotted: the giant plasma TV. Holy _hell_ , this guy had to be rich! All she could manage to get were tube TVs that she’d managed to scrape up from the dump and fix. Her eyes then gravitated towards the fireplace not too far away. There was no fire lit at the moment, but even still, it looked _so_ extravagant. She then quickly gazed at the furniture that decorated the room. This home was practically a dream come true!

She didn’t have any more time to look at anything else as Frost had led her into the adjacent bathroom. Just like the living quarters, this bathroom was about as lavish as one could imagine a bathroom being. Pristine white tiles decorated the floor, with a modern back-splash on the wall that beautifully complimented it. The shower curtain had a lovely, regal design on it, and its color matched perfectly with the neatly-folded towels sitting in the open cabinet beside it. Everything was so neat and clean, a part of her wondered if he’d ever used this bathroom at all!

While she continued to admire the scenery, Frost had already made his way over to the shower. “Turn the top knob left for hot water, right for cold.” Alphys’ attention immediately snapped back to the elemental as he spoke. He moved to the cabinet, pulling out a few more items. “Soap, face wash, lotion, washcloth.” Frost continued to rattle off each item as he tossed them to her. The last two items that he was placed on the side table Alphys recognized as body towels. What she _didn’t_ realize was that the second large item she’d also presumed to be a towel was actually a bath robe, which was revealed as it was hung on the hook beside the shower. “This should take care of everything.”

With that, Frost made his way out of the bathroom to give the other some privacy. Before he exited, he turned back to Alphys. “I shall be in the living quarters, should thou needeth me.” He didn’t wait for a response before leaving, closing the door behind him.

There was a silence that rang through the room as Alphys tried to take everything in that had just happened. Taken into a luxurious home and given a chance to properly clean herself... This was more than what she felt she deserved, but she didn’t want to be trudging around such a regal house in the filth of the dump, either.

Setting the bottles and soap into the shower, the scientist set her bag of food she’d still been carrying near the exit. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. She didn’t want to discard it, especially if this was only a one-day thing for her. She needed every piece of food she could get her hands on. However, like her clothes, she didn’t want to be dragging her filth-coated bag around the house. Perhaps she’d just leave it in the bathroom for the time being. Hopefully Frost wouldn’t mind.

As she walked back, she placed her glasses onto the side table. Sooner or later the lens was going to fall out completely from the frame. Hopefully she’d be able to scrounge up another pair before that happened, though finding glasses with her prescription strength was going to be _way_ easier said than done.

Turning the faucets on as she was instructed, Alphys started up the shower. As she waited for the water to heat up, she slowly discarded her clothing pieces one by one. As they hit the floor, it started to dawn on Alphys how _disgusting_ they really were. Having no other clothes to wear, she was forced to bathe with her clothes on in order to keep them clean. However, a simple soaking in water hadn’t really done the job. There were stains in there that were likely never coming out. She should have gotten more clothes, she thought to herself for a fleeting moment, but then remembered how limited her inventory space was. Food and tools had taken priority over everything else. As long as she had one outfit, she didn’t need to worry about her wardrobe.

With the visible steam as a signal that the water was heated up, the small lizard entered the shower. The moment that water touched her scales, a relaxed sigh made its way out. She couldn’t _remember_ the last time she’d had a warm shower, it had been so long ago. The sensation was _more_ than welcome. She wasted no time beginning to rub the bar of soap against her body, ready to clean off all of the _junk_ on her body and _finally_ look–and smell–like a civilized person again. 

All of the dirt she was beginning to see come out of her yellow scales was shudder-inducing. She was going to be in this shower for a while if she wanted to get as clean as she imagined. At the very least, she wasn’t cleaning herself in a lake that other monsters probably _urinated_ in. _Disgusting_.

As she mindlessly scrubbed away at her scales, her thoughts began to drift elsewhere, particularly to Frost. What exactly had prompted the elemental to come after her? It would have been so easy for him to leave her for dead. After all, now that she was no longer the Royal Scientist’s assistant, he had no need to associate with her any longer. Even before she’d begun to take an interest in Frost, she’d known that he was not one to associate with commoners. His time and breath was only to be saved for the elites, as they were the only ones worthy of it. A family lineage with that kind of mindset would cause someone to think that way, yet, he’d come and rescued a _homeless_ girl? What was the point?

Her eyes widened as a thought crossed her mind. She’d nearly lost grip of the soap, a lump forming in her throat. What if Frost was trying to buy her as a servant? Perhaps not with money, but by making her indebted to him she would be forced to bend to his whim. After all, when they weren’t flirting, he and Gaster often used her as a fetch-girl during their meetings. Perhaps that’s what instilled the idea in his mind to find her and turn her into one? It seemed like the perfect formula... Was she falling into a cleverly-woven trap?

A light sigh escaped her as the soap moved over her chest. In all honesty, if that really _was_ his plan she didn’t really see the need to abandon him on the spot. At least, not yet. To be honest, right now, the idea of working as a servant sounded much better than living on the streets. With this lifestyle, she was guaranteed at least a roof over her head, a clean place to bathe, and the possibility of having a meal every day. That was _much_ better than scraping for food while dodging monsters who would attempt to rob–and possibly murder–the helpless lizard. As long as Frost wasn’t the abusive type, then it wouldn’t be that bad of an idea to serve Frost.

As she moved to her tail, another thought crossed her mind. What about Gaster? Weren’t he and Frost still in contact with each other? What would Gaster say if he found out the elemental was housing her? Well... In all honesty, if he was told she was being used as a servant, Gaster would probably be content with it. In fact, he would probably mock her the next time he saw her, boasting about how right he was and how _wrong_ she was. God, she hoped that wouldn’t _ever_ happen. She hoped she’d never have to _see_ Gaster’s face _ever_ again.

As she finished cleaning herself up, she shut the water off, sliding the curtains over. Before she could reach for the towel, her eyes were brought back to the dirty clothes on the floor. She needed a clean set of clothes, but there was no way in _hell_ she was going to be putting _those_ back on. At least, not the way they were now. What was she going to do?

Just then an idea struck her. She snagged the towel, drying herself off quickly, but before putting the bathrobe around herself, she snatched up the dirty clothes. Perhaps while she had the opportunity she could clean her clothes in the tub. Granted, she didn’t have any laundry detergent to take care of the job, but she still had a bar of soap at her disposal, and that was better than nothing.

She started the water back up, leaving it hot and steamy, and tossed her clothes into the tub. One by one, she picked up each piece of clothing, soaking it up and then scrubbing as best as she could. This would feel so _nice_ to have _clean_ clothes to wear! Squeaky clean scales and clothes—Oh, how she _missed_ that feeling! Once she was finished with the first piece of clothing, she wrung out the excess water and placed it on her used towel. 

One by one, she cleaned each piece of clothing until finally she’d covered all her basis. She shut off the water, patted out any excess moisture and laid them over the rim of the tub. Hopefully they’d be dry and wearable by tomorrow morning.

She scanned the room one last time before reaching for the bath robe. She’d cleaned up almost everything she could. The faintest of smiles grew on her face as she placed the soaps and lotions back away. She’d felt so _refreshed_ , the scent of suede now lingering in place of moldy fish. 

As she wrapped the bath robe around herself, that smile quickly faded back away. It was _awfully_ small, almost two sizes too small for her. That didn’t mean she couldn’t still get herself completely covered, but... an _awful_ lot of cleavage was showing. She supposed she should have guessed that, though. The bath robes were only made to fit _Frost_ , not her. He was toned, tall, and muscular, and her? Plump and short as could be. As she adjusted it to her liking, her tail remained glued to her legs. She didn’t want it to fly up and show the businessman something he was never meant to see!

When she’d finally gotten the robe set on her body, she grabbed her glasses, placed them on her head, and then exited the bathroom. The elemental, who had been sitting on the couch, turned his attention back towards her. When his eyes met hers, Alphys could see him flinch. What was wrong? Had she done something to offend him? Oh God, she’d made a mistake, hadn’t she? It was the bathrobe, wasn’t it?! Oh God, now he was going to think she really _was_ a whore, just because this stupid bath robe wouldn’t fit her right! Oh God, oh God, _oh God!_

“Th-that was a pretty long shower.” When he finally spoke up, that was the first comment he’d offered to her, letting out some weak coughs as he spoke. “Does thou always taketh an hour to cleanse thyself?”

The lizard shied away as the question was asked. She wasn’t quite sure whether he was joking or not. No, she didn’t usually take this long. She had gone over a week without a proper shower, she simply wanted to make sure she was tidy enough when she got out. However, she didn’t feel it was appropriate to make a comment, thus, she kept her mouth closed.

With a sigh, the elemental got up from the couch, wandering over towards where she stood. “Seems that robe is a bit too small.” He commented, stopping in front of her. “Thou doth not need to humor me by wearing it. Thou may changeth into thy clothes.”

Alphys could feel herself shy away yet again. She knew it. It _was_ the bathrobe. As much as she would have _loved_ to come out fully-clothed instead of wearing the skimpy bath robe, she didn’t quite have anything else to wear in the place of the filth-covered ones she’d worn into the house. Alphys didn’t want to admit to such a thing, but when she failed to speak, it seemed to give her away to the elemental anyway. 

“Thou... _doth_ have other clothes... _right_?”

Oh God, how she wanted to curl up and _die_ , never to be found again. This was so _humiliating_! She could feel her cheeks practically burning as Frost hovered over her. What was he going to do? What was he going to _say_!?

She heard an exasperated sigh. “I see...” He muttered. “Then I shall get thee some new clothes tomorrow.” With that comment, he looked to her face–more specifically, her glasses. His expression looked disgusted. “And we’ll get thee some new spectacles, as well.” He took the glasses off of her face. “How does thou expect to do anything if thou cannot see?” With that, he placed her glasses in his pocket.

Alphys timidly pat her snout where the glasses had been removed. It felt so _awkward_ having someone else take them off. Granted, he did have a point–there was _no_ way she could wait on him if she couldn’t even see what she was doing. If he could get her new glasses, that would be one more reason to stay and work for him.

“Speaking of which,” His voice interrupted her thoughts. “Where are the clothes thou had been wearing?” He didn’t seem to wait for an answer, already moving over and opening the bathroom door. All Alphys could do was watch his reaction in fear as he stumbled across the clothes she’d attempted to clean herself.

Another exasperated sigh came from the elemental. She messed up big time! What was he going to do? Was he going to kick her back out on the curb? Was he going to make her fend for herself again? Would he–

Her thoughts stopped almost immediately when she saw him walk back out with her damp clothes in his hands. “I own a laundry machine.” He commented as he passed by her. “Just ask me next time thou needeth thine clothes cleaned.” He didn’t wait for her to respond as he walked off, presumably towards where the laundry machine was. Alphys waited for a good minute or two for him to return, not daring to move an inch from where she stood. She’d already fucked up enough already. She did not want to mess things up any further. She needed this roof over her head so badly!

The sound of a running washing machine caught her ears, followed by Frost’s footsteps. As he made it back to the living room, he stopped in front of her once again. “It’s bedtime.” He informed her. Really? Was it _that_ late? Her eyes wandered over to the clock. 11:21. Yikes, he wasn’t kidding. “I need to prepare for work tomorrow.” He then turned towards the stairs. “Thou best be headed to bed, too.”

With that, Alphys watched as he ascended the stairs. She’d never really paid much attention to his gait before. It looked so refined, so regal. That, his dialect, the clothes, and the fancy home... he practically _reeked_ of wealth. He was so lucky.

As he disappeared into what was presumably the master bedroom, Alphys eyes wandered about the living room. Yes, she needed to sleep, but where? He hadn’t exactly offered her any place to stay. While the couch looked _really_ inviting, she didn’t want to overstep her boundaries by sleeping on it. She was already walking on eggshells as it was. What to do?

Unable to come to a compromise, the small lizard found herself a relatively empty corner of the living room. She slowly lowered herself onto the carpet below her feet. She wasn’t going to lie, this was _much_ more comfortable than sleeping on the floor of her dirt-filled cave. She curled in on herself as much as she could for warmth, her eyes closing as she slowly drifted off to sleep. What would come of tomorrow? Only time would tell.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an attempt to get herself back on her feet, Alphys has begun searching for job postings in the newspaper. While searching, she ends up coming across a horrible discovery.

“... phys...”

The lizard began to stir where she lay, wiggling ever so slightly as her body struggled to wake up. The dirt felt oddly soft today, almost like a cotton-y texture. Weird.

“... Alphys...”

Come to think of it, it was _awfully_ quiet, too. Usually the sounds of the waterfalls could be heard drumming against the rivers and streams in the background, but there was none of it. If that was the case, if she couldn’t hear any of the familiar ambient sounds of Waterfall, that could only mean one thing–!

“Alphys.”

The lizard jolted awake, pulling herself up out of instinct. Someone had kidnapped her in her sleep! She drew back, taking a look into the eyes of her captor.

Wait... Frost? _He’d_ kidnapped her?

Alphys eyes remained locked on those icy sockets, trying to put her jumbled thoughts back together. The elemental had made no move towards her, aggressive or not. All he did was look at her. In fact, he wasn’t anywhere _close_ to where she was at. He was sitting on the couch at the other end of the room.

Slowly, the lizard’s eyes wandered around her. Couch... paintings... fire place... Her claws ran through the fabric below her. It was a carpet. Then, everything came back into her memory. That was right... Frost had found her and taken her into his home. This wasn’t an abduction of any kind.

A claw hovered over her chest as she attempted to slow down her breathing and heart. Fight-or-flight _really_ had its way of _jolting_ someone awake, didn’t it? As her claw grazed over her bare chest, she suddenly remembered–she was still wearing nothing but the bath robe! Her cheeks lit up bright red as she attempted to adjust the robe around her, praying to heaven on high that she’d managed to stay covered throughout the night.

“I saw nothing.” Came a reassuring comment from the ice cube himself. “I just arrived downstairs five minutes ago.”

At that, Alphys was able to let out a sigh of relief. Good. She’d managed to keep her decency throughout the night.

“Why did thou not stayeth in the guest bedroom?” Frost questioned. Though his tone was calm, the expression on his face was enough to crank Alphys’ anxiety levels back up to extreme. Why? She’d assumed she wasn’t _allowed_ in the room, at least not without his permission. Though sleeping on the floor was probably even more uncouth in his eyes. Why hadn’t she considered that the previous night? God, she was such a fuck-up.

“Go upstairs and change.” He ordered, his stern command like a father ordering his child to their room. Boy, if Alphys didn’t feel like a child in that moment. “Thou art to sleep in the guest room from here on out. Do I maketh myself clear?”

With a quick nod, Alphys quickly scurried off, hustling up the stairs so she could make it out of Frost’s eyesight before the tears she was fighting back made their way out. It was a miracle that she didn’t hit anything without the aid of her glasses. The embarrassment that had been crawling up and down her back from the whole mess was starting to get to her. Perhaps, hidden away in this bedroom, she could finally calm herself down enough to be presentable once more.

Once upstairs, Alphys peeked into the only room with the open door. Spotting her clothes on the bed, she assumed it must have been the extra bedroom and made her way inside. The bed looked so _comfortable_ , much more than the _floor_. She was already daydreaming about how soft that mattress would be underneath of her.

As she began to dress herself, she took a good look around the room. It didn’t really have a whole lot in it–The bed, a dresser, a mirror, and a side table with a lamp on it. There were also a few paintings in the room, but they were nothing of the size or majesty of the other paintings within the house–or at least, as far as she could tell. They could have been the Mona Lisa, it could have been ink splatters that were classed as “interpretive art.” It was hard to distinguish things when everything looked like a blurry mess. Even if the guest bedroom still looked a tad plain in comparison to the rest of his abode, there was no doubt in Alphys’ mind that the room still gave off a _wealthy_ vibe.

With all of her clothes now back on her body, she let out a sigh of relief, hands running along the fabric. She didn’t have to worry about Frost seeing her private parts any longer. Plus, finally getting to put on fresh clothing after almost a _week_ of trudging around in filth-riddled clothes was quite the welcome sensation. Even though her clothes weren’t totally stain-free, they were as clean as they would probably ever get.

Taking one last deep breath, she recuperated and slowly made her way back down to the living room. Her eyes watched carefully for the blurry red blob that was Frost. He was nowhere in sight. He must have wandered off to the kitchen. That did beg the question in Alphys’ mind, though: If Frost owned a restaurant, did he cook breakfast at home, or did he wait until he was at work and then warmed up by prepping the meal there instead?

By the time her foot hit the last step, the sweet aroma that hit her nose answered the question for her. The mix of spices and ingredients began to make her stomach rumble in anticipation. She couldn’t really name off any of the scents she caught aside from that of eggs, but even still she was eager to find out what was cooking. Not wanting to seem too excited, she withheld from darting in, keeping a slow steady pace as she entered the kitchen.

Alphys’ eyes instantly fell onto the chef when she was in the room. Even though she couldn’t make out details, she could see enough to know that Frost seemed to be in a _zone_ , gracefully flipping, stirring, and seasoning without missing a beat. It was like watching an elegant dance, and the kitchen was Frost’s stage. All Alphys could do was watch in awe at the elemental’s movements, completely entranced by what he was doing. He was so passionate about cooking... she wished she had even an _ounce_ of that passion like Frost had. However, the passion she used to have for science–the very _reason_ she _strove_ to become the next Royal Scientist–had died when... when–

“Oh, Alphys!” The lizard stiffened as her own name was called. When had Frost turned around to look at her? “I didn’t hear thee come back downstairs.” He told her. He must have seen her when her attention drifted away for that split second, Alphys thought.

Alphys slowly made her way over to the bar stool where Frost had two sets of dishes set up, doing her best to grip the chair as she climbed up it. Once settled, she was able to notice the change in Frost’s demeanor, leaving his stern attitude from when he’d found her on the ground behind and replacing it with a softer, peppier one. It was amazing how quickly something he loved so much could change his mood.

“Omelets are on the menu this morning.” Frost chimed, flipping over the dish on his skillet right on cue with his announcement. “I wasn’t sure what thou liked on thy eggs, so I hope this will suffice.” Without another word, the skillet was brought over and the omelet was scooped up and transferred to her plate with more grace than Alphys could have imagined a simple task like that having. “ _Bon appétit_!”

Alphys leaned over, an awestruck look on her face. With the food now close enough for her to see without her glasses, she couldn’t help but marvel at how Frost had managed to get an _omelet_ to look like a culinary masterpiece, yet here it sat before her, An omelet that looked like it belonged on the cover of a five-star cuisine magazine. Speckled within the eggs, Alphys could see peppers, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and on the side, a deliciously thick cheddar cheese oozed out of the omelet that just _begged_ Alphys to dig in.

Alphys heard a light clatter on the counter, catching her attention. Salt, pepper, and hot sauce were placed beside her food. “What would thou like to drink?” Frost asked, the elemental seeming to have his restaurant waiter act on full-display for the lizard. He was surprisingly charming, Alphys thought. She’d expected the act to seem a lot more forced. “I have water, milk, coffee, tea–green, earl grey, or iced–lemonade, or if the young lady is feeling _daring_ this morning, we could always start the morning off with some white or rose wine.”

With all of the options being presented to her, Alphys began to shy away. So many choices! While it was silly for her to think so, a part of her wondered if this was some kind of test. Was Frost expecting a specific drink for her to choose? What if she didn’t pick the right one, what was he going to think of her? Was he expecting her to go the classy route and pick wine to prove herself as an upper-class citizen at heart to him? But wait, if that was a trap–maybe he was seeing if she was desperate enough to resort to drinking! He might think of her as a lowly alcoholic! But then what was he–

“How about some Earl Grey to calm thy nerves?” Frost proposed, snapping her out of her reverie. The panic in her face must’ve clearly been showing. Talk about _embarrassing_. With a slow nod, Alphys agreed to the tea option. If that was what _Frost_ was suggesting, then _surely_ it would be the right choice.

“Very well, then!” Like a ballet show, Frost danced across his stage, sweeping up a small teacup and a small bag of tea from a nearby box. Man, he could _really_ put on a show when he wanted to. Setting the cup by her plate and the bag inside, he then proceeded to bring over the teapot Alphys hadn’t even noticed was sitting on the stove until now. Didn’t those usually whistle? Perhaps it had been already warmed up for a while.

“I madeth myself coffee this morning.” Frost explained, pouring the steaming hot water into her cup. “Espresso. I know, ‘tis a bit generic, but it gives me that _kick_ I needeth to start the day.” Alphys gave a slow nod, but didn’t do anything more. She wasn’t much of a coffee drinker. She would if she absolutely _had_ to, but otherwise, not really.

After his espresso comment Frost moved right back to work, setting the pot aside and working on the second omelet. With only slight hesitation, Alphys picked up her fork, looking at the scrumptious meal before her. It had been _so long_ since she’d sat down at a table and had a proper meal off of a plate. The things she took for _granted_ before.

“Don’t be shy, dearest.” The elemental encouraged, though his attention was now fixated on his own food. “Dig in!”

Despite his best encouragement, Alphys’ pace didn’t pick up any bit afterwards. It wasn’t that the food didn’t look good–it looked _delicious_ –but her clouded mind was too bogged down by all of the thoughts causing a storm in her head. She couldn’t bring herself to move any faster. A proper meal, served to her on a plate with utensils, under the safety of a roof–She never realized how _lucky_ she was before to have those things. Alphys wondered just how long this would last. How long would it be before she was thrust back out into the harsh world without any place to call home?

Trying her best to push those thoughts out of her head, her fork began to cut into the gooey corner of her food. She brought the food to her mouth, and the moment the food touched her tongue, she swore she died and went to heaven. She didn’t know omelets could taste _this_ good! The crisp, juicy vegetables blended harmoniously with the creamy cheddar center, creating a medley of flavors that made her taste buds _sing_. Such a beautiful symphony of flavors all compiled onto one dish!

“So,” Frost’s words cut through the food aria. Eyes wide, Alphys listened intently, scared of what was about to come out of his mouth. “Here’s the deal: I will let thee stayeth at my abode for as long as it takes for thee to get back on thy feet. Thou needeth not worry about rent so long that I see that thou art actively searching for work.” With that, Frost shot a look back at Alphys, who solemnly nodded in agreement. It made sense why he’d ask this of her–he didn’t want to worry about her mooching off of him. She _never_ wanted to be considered a moocher. As if being homeless wasn’t embarrassing enough.

“I would also liketh thee to take care of chores around the house whilst thou art looking for a job: Clean the dishes, sweep the floors, dust the rooms, so on.” The chef continued. “We can discuss rent when thou obtaineth a job.” With that, he tilted his chin up. “Doth I maketh myself clear?” With another reassured nod from Alphys the elemental went back to finishing his meal while the lizard feasting on her own meal too. “Thou art free to use whatever thee need around the house–Thou should make thyself at home here. All I ask is that thou doth not go into my bedroom, nor the master bathroom. The rest of the home you are free to use.”

Alphys lowered her head, a tad bit ashamed that he had to mention that. It was probably due to her bizarre behavior. While it seemed normal and justified to her, sleeping on the floor and washing clothes in the bathtub were rather outlandish things for any civilized person to do. She couldn’t help it–she was simply scared of overstepping her boundaries. Who _wouldn’t_ have done those same things in her shoes?

The meal carried on mostly in silence from Alphys, Frost interjecting her rampant thoughts here and there with small commentary about random things, whether it was his food, his home, or his restaurant. Alphys didn’t mind. Seeing the passion he had for everything he mentioned, Alphys couldn’t help but marvel at it. It was honestly pretty cute. He practically _beamed_ when he talked about culinary arts.

As the meal concluded Alphys began to clean up her dishes, offering to take Frost’s as well so he could finish getting ready for the day. As Alphys finally found a stool to reach the sink Frost came through the kitchen, tightening up his tie as he made his way over to the door. “Dishwasher is next to the sink. Plates and bowls on the bottom, cups and plastic containers on the top. Soap is under the sink.” Alphys nodded along as each thing was rattled off. As Frost finished with his tie he pat his pockets, Alphys presumed to makes sure his wallet was with him. “I hath set newspapers on the side table of the living room for thee. Thou can use them to search for job applications whilst I am at work.” Frost grabbed the keys and opened the door. He stopped himself midway out, turning to Alphys. “The restaurant generally closes around eleven, depending on when mine last customers arrive. Call if thou needeth anything.” Without another word, the elemental left.

Alphys was silent as she stared at the door. Contacting Frost for anything would be easier said than done. Though she’d managed to rescue her phone from the dump, thanks to the lakes, ponds, waterfalls, and constant humidity of Waterfall her phone had gotten soaked, and ultimately rendered it completely useless. She’d discarded it several days back after realizing that it was now a useless hunk of junk that was just bogging down her inventory space. Hopefully she wouldn’t need Frost tonight... or any night, for that matter.

Cleaning up the rest of the morning meal, Alphys decided to take some time to acquaint herself with the home by doing some chores. Having found what she presumed to be the storage closet, she found a vacuum, mop, window cleaner, feather-duster–practically everything needed to keep a home tidy. She’d even managed to find out where the washer and dryer were while poking around. Alphys wasted no time and got straight to work. She was _determined_ to make sure that the house was _spotless_ by the time Frost returned from work. There was no way in _hell_ she was going to let him think she was a lazy bum! She would make him _know_ that she was a soul worth keeping around!

Round and round she circled the house making sure every little speck of dirt she could find was properly dealt with. It was a bit trickier than what she thought given that her vision was greatly impaired, but somehow she managed to get everything taken care of. She’d only taken a break to stop for lunch, which ended up being one of her cans of ravioli she’d brought to the home. While Frost had welcomed her into the home, she didn’t think she was welcomed to his fridge. She decided the safer bet was to eat her own food, and wait until Frost gave her his blessing to eat his.

Putting away the last of the cleaning supplies for the evening, Alphys took a look at the clock. It was nearing ten o’clock. That gave her _just_ enough time to start looking up the jobs. Frost would still be at work for an hour or so, plus he had to clean up shop and walk home, which would certainly add on a bit more time. It would give Alphys the chance to draft up a resume and start looking at jobs that would be suited to her skills.

Snatching up a notepad and a pen, Alphys made her way to the living room and to the stack of newspapers. While the work ads were likely to be minimum-wage jobs, _anything_ was better than having to be on the streets wondering how long she was going to make it. Even if she had to work as a _busgirl_ , it was better than nothing.

Settling herself down on the couch, she took up the newspapers and began to skim through them one by one. Even within the first issues Alphys had been able to find some jobs that looked pretty promising. There were jobs working at some local restaurants, a few janitorial services, and even a repair job she thought she might be cut out for. She made note of them, being sure to circle them so she could easily find them when she went to make a mock resume. Putting that most recent issue aside, Alphys grabbed the next paper in the stack, the week prior, and started to skim through...

_... and that was when she saw it._

She had only made it into the second page of the newspaper, but the instant the headline caught her eye her heart instantly dropped. Everything that day–the warmth of being welcomed into Frost’s home, the pride and accomplishment of her working her ass off–it was all gone within seconds.

> **_“Assistant to Royal Scientist Fired For Scandalous Behavior At Work.”_ **

Oh no.

Oh no, oh no, _oh no_.

This wasn’t possible. He didn’t–he _wouldn’t_! It came no surprise that people heard about her firing within _days_ , but what _had_ bothered her was how they heard the _lie_ she’d been fired for. She’d assumed that it was something that was overheard by another passing monster that spread like wildfire, distorted stories of what had _really_ happened to her that she could easily quell as nothing but hearsay.

But no. The truth was _much worse_ than that.

She knew she shouldn’t read it. Her inner-thoughts _begged and pleaded_ for her to discard the newspaper, to spare herself from the hurt and betrayal this news article was bound to bring. Yet her eyes continued to scan the paper, reading over each and every _lie_ that this wretched ink spelled out.

> _“Shocking news hits Hotland today as Alphys, the now former assistant to the great scientist Dr. W. D. Gaster, was fired from her position at the lab.”_

Alphys’ breathing began to quicken, her blood pressure rising, and a lump forming in her throat. This couldn’t be happening… this _wasn’t_ happening!

> _“ An assistant to Dr. Gaster for several years now, the young scientist was fired only days ago, and when interviewing the doctor on the conditions, the scandalous truth behind the reclusive assistant was revealed.”_

This _had_ to be a nightmare. There was _no_ _way_ someone would publish such _bold-faced lies_ to the _newspaper_ without any sort of _proof_ to back up these _outlandish_ claims!

> _“‘I did what I needed to do for the sake of furthering my research.” Dr. Gaster told the interviewer. “Miss Alphys was partaking in lewd and uncouth behaviors that were unfitting of someone of royal stature. She was a detriment to our work, putting not only our experiments in jeopardy, but our entire reputation as well. I had no choice but to relieve her of her duties.’ News crews were–”_

**_Fwip!_ **

The pages of the newspaper fluttered about the room, never even making it to their intended target of the wall. Tears streaked Alphys’ face, eyes slamming shut. No matter how much she tried, how much she wanted to _scream_ to the _high heavens_ , nothing came out except for choked sobs.

How could they _do_ this to her?! How could they _publish_ this?! All this time, she thought it was just a series of unfortunate circumstances that had happened at all of the _wrong_ times. To see the truth–that her name had been sullied for _all_ monster-kind to see–Gaster knew _damn well_ what he was doing when those _filthy leeches_ came to him for juicy stories! He knew _just_ what to say, and they _ate it up_ , all at _her_ expense.

All of this, simply because she flirted with the man she had a crush on.

* * *

“Alphys! I’m home!”

Closing the door behind him, Frost looked about his home, surprised to see it looking clean as a whistle. While he’d told Alphys about doing chores, he honestly hadn’t expected her to jump out and do them right away. That didn’t mean he was any less grateful for the chores being done. He stood at the doorway, admiring her handiwork for a little while. “The house looks _wonderful_ , dear.” He called out as his eyes wandered. He continued to admire, but as time passed, he realized something was off. He was expecting to see the lizard at least _somewhere_ in view, or even for her to simply _respond_ to him. With how she’d been acting the last twenty-four hours he expected that she’d be waiting right within earshot and would bound right in. When the lizard failed to respond to him, Frost knew something was wrong.

“Alphys?!” Frost called out once more. He wasted no time moving into the living room, hoping that perhaps she’d retreated to her room or the bathroom. A few steps into the living room and an unsettling sight reinforced that the pit in his stomach was not formed on empty ground. Quickly discarding his extra belongings to the side, he hustled past the papers strewn about his living room. “Alphys!”

As Frost darted by, one page that crunched beneath his feet caught his attention. He only caught the title of the article, but it was enough to help him piece together what had happened to Alphys during his absence. Why hadn’t he _looked_ at those damn papers before giving them to her to read?!

Without any further hesitation Frost darted up the stairs, his long legs skipping steps here and there to climb up as fast as he could. “Alphys!” He called out once more. When his foot hit the top step, he finally heard it–soft sobs seeping through the cracked open guest room.

With a deep breath, the ice elemental slowly made his way over to the bedroom. With the mess downstairs it was _really_ starting to dawn on him how much this was taking a toll on her, not just physically but mentally as well. It had only been nine days since she was fired, to know that _this_ much damage had been done in _this_ short of time… Heart-wrenching was an understatement.

When he got to the door, Frost lightly pushed it open. “Alphys?” He spoke in a hushed tone, not wanting to startle the already-distraught reptile. He’d gotten no response from her. Pushing the door open just a bit further, he caught sight of Alphys, and his heart sank further. She sat up on the bed, facing away from the door and towards the wall. Her head was hung low, and even after making himself known to her she still refused to turn.

“Alphys,” Frost called once more. Once again, she failed to respond. With a falling expression, he took a few steps in. At first they were cautious, expecting her to order him to leave her be. After all, she had a very _harsh_ way of telling others what she wanted in the past. Yet she did nothing. He didn’t even see her move an _inch_. Frost moved in closer, closer, closer, until finally he was beside the bed. He stared at her for a good moment, reading what little he could from her expression. Though she never moved, it still somehow felt as though she were trying to hide her feelings from him, like she didn’t want him to see her hurt expression.

With a heavy sigh and a heavier heart, the elemental finally settled himself down beside Alphys on the bed. Again, she gave no reaction. He could sense the _pain_ and _suffering_ she was going through, the negativity practically _suffocating_ him in this stuffy room. “Alphys.” He tried calling to her one more time. When her silence repeated, his shoulders fell, hands sliding down his thighs. “I knoweth things look bleak, dearest. During times liketh thes–”

“Why?”

Frost’s eyebrows raised at that one little word. That was the first time she’d spoken since arriving. He’d remembered her as such a strong-willed and feisty individual, one who _never_ took shit from _anyone_. She always made sure to lay the foot down when need be, and every ounce of life in her voice had _always_ reflected it. To hear it now, so _broken_ , so _weak_ … This situation was taking a _far_ bigger toll than he could’ve _ever_ imagined.

“‘Why’ what, dearest?”

With her back still to the elemental, Alphys took a deep, shaky breath, wrapping her arms around her body. “Why did you take me in…?”

Eyes were still wide as she probed him on the subject. He honestly hadn’t expected her to ask _why_ he did it. Though after everything she’d been through, he supposed it shouldn’t have been surprising that she _would_. Everyone _else_ had basically shut her out and treated her like dirt, so of course she would wonder why he hadn’t done the same.

With a gentle smile, Frost gingerly placed a hand on her shoulder. “Because… Thou was in needeth of assistance.” He spoke softly, his eyes never once leaving the other. Though she hadn’t given any obvious reaction, he did notice her shaky breathing quiet down as he spoke. “When I heard what thou had been going through, I knew I needed to help.” With that, he leaned in closer, hoping to get a look at her face as he spoke. “After all, ‘tis a gentleman’s duty and obligation to help out, especially when it’s a friend in need.”

Despite his best efforts, the small lizard hadn’t turned to look at him. “Are you sure it’s worth it? Letting someone with a reputation like _mine_ drag you down?” Her eyes slowly closed, another deep, shaky breath leaving her. “People will find out you took a ‘ _whore_ ’ into your home. Your reputation will plummet, as well as your business. Is everything you’re doing really worth it?”

“Yes it is.”

Alphys eyes shot back open, her head turning to Frost in disbelief. Did he _really_ just say that? His response was _immediate_ , too. He didn’t even spend a moment _thinking_ on it. “But–”

“I knoweth what thou speaketh is not true.” Frost reassured her, a small smile appearing on his face. “Thou art not a ‘whore,’ nor any variation of such a vulgar word. I knoweth that thou doth not partake in such _uncouth_ behaviors.” The ice cube then leaned in closer. “And I would be willing to bet that I’m not the only soul who believes that.”

Alphys couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Even after _seeing_ and _hearing_ those _foul words_ being used to describe her he _still_ chose to stay by her side, to help her through the trying times. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes from the size of this man’s heart. He truly _was_ a gentleman, in _every_ meaning of the word.

“Now, now,” With a light brush of her cheek, the elemental wiped away a stray tear that had fallen. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the tear become part of his icy red husk. Her mother had taught her about _some_ elemental powers, but this was one she had yet to learn about. “Don’t cry, dearest. Thou looketh _far_ better with a smile on thy face.”

With his comment topping off his comforting gestures, Alphys found herself unable to hold back a nervous laugh, a light blush creeping on her face. Even in those serious moments he still managed to keep that charm about himself. Damn him for being so smooth!

“See?” Frost’s expression seemed to ease up just a bit. “Much better.” With a light pat on her cheek, he parted from her, standing back up straight. “Well then my dearest, thou shouldst get to rest. We have a big day tomorrow!” Though he’d already turned to leave the room, he could feel the raised eyebrows and confusion emanating off of the lizard. With a smirk, he made his way over to the door. “I’ll give thee more details in the morning, dearest. For now, rest. Thou needeth some after today.”

With the door clicking behind the elemental, Alphys continued to stare off at the closed door. Her shy, awkward smile had been replaced with a soft, calm grin. What did she do to deserve help from such a wonderful gentleman like Frost? Perhaps it was fortune’s way of telling her that her luck would soon change for the better.

She only _hoped_.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While waiting for Alphys’ new glasses to be finished, Frost decides to take Alphys out to the store to let her pick out some new clothes. Alphys is ecstatic to be out in the real world again, but her excitement is soon extinguished when a few spiteful whispers catch her ears.

“This store happens to be one of the most renowned clothing stores in this part of the City.” Frost jabbered on as they made their way towards the last store among a line of stores. It was some business that Alphys had never heard of, but by the sound of it, it was very well-known around these parts. “I do all of my clothing shopping here.”

“It sounds like it’s a great store.” Alphys commentated, though she admittedly couldn’t add much more to what Frost had already said. He’d already spent the fifteen minutes travel time between here and the eyeglass store gushing about the place, and she was certain that he’d probably spend the remainder of the two hours they had to wait for her glasses to be finished doing the exact same thing.

As they entered the establishment, the very first thing Alphys’ eyes fell upon was the jewelry section placed right smack dab in the center for all entering patrons to see. Gold, silver, and beautiful gemstones glistened back into her eyes, giving off a hypnotizing allure to their stand. She had barely even paid mind to the various clothing racks full of designer clothing.

“They keepeth the women’s clothing in front, since women shopeth here more than men, but they still have a decent-sized collection of men’s suits as well.” Frost continued on, idly walking into the store. “Many other gentleman these days prefer to weareth jeans and slacks, but I believe ‘tis only fitting that a gentleman wear clothing that properly reflects the mannerisms of his soul.” He turned his head to the side. “Calleth me old-fashioned, but I—”

Frost’s voice quickly faded when he realized that his small lizard companion was no longer with him. “Alphys?” He called out, eyes wandering to and fro. She was _just_ with them when they entered, so she couldn’t have been far off. “Alphys?” He called once more, but right as the last syllable left his eyes fell upon her. The young monster was crouched beside one of the jewelers’ cases, gazing almost longingly at something within. Carefully and quietly he walked over beside her, curious about what had suddenly caught the other’s eye.

Painted in the glass reflection, Frost could see exactly what Alphys was gazing at: A necklace. Fourteen karat gold, both in the charm and the chain, with a glimmering ruby right in the center. She’d positioned herself just right, allowing the jewelry to fall right upon the neck of her reflection. The glimmer in her eyes said it all.

For a few moments, all the ice elemental did was watch. Alphys was completely enamored by that little bit of jewelry. Love at first sight, he supposed. It was actually quite cute. He didn’t watch for too much longer, as he still had some things he needed to get done, and admittedly, with her distracted there was no better time than then.

“Alphys,” Frost spoke just loud enough to catch her attention, but not enough to startle her. With eyebrows raised, Alphys broke her stare, turning back to look at Frost. “I needeth to buy a few things whilst we’re here. While I’m off, go and pick out some clothes thou wouldst liketh me to buy for thee.” He took a few steps in another direction. “I shouldn’t be too long.” 

When Alphys gave a confirmatory nod, Frost saw himself to a separate department–the dress clothing part of the store. It came as no surprise that it was filled with neatly pressed clothing of solid pallet colors, and dress pants of all types of blacks, grays, and tans. Work clothes tended to be rather plain, but they also conveyed a sense of cleanliness in their simple design. Too much visual clutter could make one seem disorganized and unkempt.

Wandering down an aisle full of button-up shirts, Frost found himself fancying the black shirts in particular. They would match perfectly with his current work uniform, he thought to himself. This top paired with black slacks would work _wonderfully_.

Just as he pulled out the size he was looking for off the shelf, something caught his attention. Looking up above the racks, he spotted another shopper right in the next aisle-way–and not just _any_ shopper: an _elemental_. A lightning elemental.

Frost’s interest was immediately piqued. It was rare nowadays to come across other elementals in the Underground. As far as he was aware, he and Grillby were really the only elementals anyone talked about these days. They were practically the only ones people _imagined_ when elementals were even _spoken_ of.

Excitement bubbling forth, Frost made his way over to the aisle, eager to introduce himself to the new stranger. When he’d turned the corner, he’d been able to see the entirety of her wardrobe–dress clothes, just like him! Paired with her glasses and ball of electricity that mimicked a bun on the back of her head, the woman practically screamed "sophisticated.”

“G-greetings, Madame” He accidentally stammered as he tried to introduce himself. He let out a nervous cough. Goodness, he was so excited a moment ago, now he was feeling himself getting butterflies. “It’s a pleasure to meet thine acquaintance–”

“I’m married.” Ouch. First words to come out of her mouth.

“E-excuse me–?”

“Don’t get any ideas. My husband is a retired guardsman and will not be _thrilled_ that some _guy_ was hitting on his _wife_.” She eyed him as well as the clothes in his hands. “For that matter, I don’t think _your_ wife would be too pleased with the idea either, so don’t try any funny business.”

“ _W-wife?!_ ” Frost nearly choked on the air. What in the _world_ was she talking about!? “I-I don’t have a betrothed!” He argued back, now flustered beyond belief. This was _definitely_ not the direction he’d expected this conversation to go. Two sentences in and she was already accusing him of hitting on her, and judging by the raised brow she had, she still didn’t believe a single word he was saying.

“ _Really_? No wife?”

“Honest.”

“Then _why_ are you shopping for clothes in the _women’s_ section of the store?” 

Well, that would explain the weird looks she was giving him. “Listen, ‘tis not as thou wouldst think. Mine friend is in need of clothes, but sh-she was too flustered to come on her own!” A lie, yes, but this stranger didn’t need to know the entire story behind why he was here in particular. The important part was making sure he didn’t come off as some kind of creep.

The lightning elemental stared for an uncomfortably long time, the eyebrow still raised as high as could be. Frost could feel his ice beginning to melt. Finally, tension lifted as she let out a sigh. “Sure. I’ll buy it.” She muttered, turning her attention back to the clothes in front of her.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Frost took a good look at the woman. Perhaps it wasn’t the best of ideas, but something told him he needed to make things work with this woman. “So,” He started back up again. “What art thou doing here?”

“What does it look like?!” She snapped back immediately.

Ouch.

Before Frost could get himself out a counter, the lightning elemental gave a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me.” Her stern expression was gone, and in its place, a much more vulnerable one rested. “Forgive me, I’m under a lot of stress at the moment.” She muttered. Her shoulders fell as the sturdy wall she’d put up fell for that moment. “It’s been really hard on us lately.”

“Us?” Frost repeated. “Thou means...”

“My husband and I. Family issues.”

“Oh... I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” Eyes fell shut as the lightning elemental’s mind wandered off, presumably to thoughts about the issue at hand.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“That’s very kind of you sir, but there’s not a whole lot you can do to help.”

With a heavy sigh Frost looked to the woman. Whatever she was going through had really hurt her, that much was certain. While she’d already dismissed his help, he couldn’t leave things as they were. He had to do _something_ to help her out.

Just then, a light bulb lit up in the ice elemental’s head. Reaching into his wallet, he pulled out a card, promptly handing it over to the stranger. She’d opened her eyes, looking at the card with raised eyebrows.

“‘Tis my business card.” He told her. “If thou ever needeth my help, thou will have a way to get into contact with me.” He’d expected her to outright refuse the card, but to his surprise she did just the opposite. She took it and began to carefully examine it. “Thou art free to do whatever thee would like with it. Toss it if thou hath no need.”

She gave the card a good look over before speaking up. “Mr. Frost, huh?” She didn’t wait for him to give a response, but she placed the card into her skirt pocket. “Thank you, Sir.” With that, she held out a hand to him. “Nariko. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Nariko.” 

With a half-smirk, the lightning elemental–Nariko–pushed up the glasses on her face. “Oh, and by the way, make sure you’re watching the sizing. Women’s clothing get’s sized differently than men’s.”

Frost gave a half-teasing pout back. “And thou assumes that I hath never shopped for women’s clothing before?”

Returning his banter back with a laugh, Nariko put a hand on her hip. “Well, considering you’re not married, I’d be willing to bet money that you haven’t ever stepped foot in the women’s department before today.”

“... touché.”

With one last chuckle, the lightning elemental turned back to the rack of clothes she’d been working on. “Anyways, we best be getting back to our own business.” And like that, her cheerful mood was instantly gone. “Good day.”

That certainly was a _strange_ way to end the conversation, Frost thought. Nevertheless, given the greeting he’d gotten he figured it best not to pester the woman any longer. Besides, he had a few more things he needed to get finished before going back to check on Alphys.

* * *

“Let’s see, some new clothes...”

It hadn’t been long after Frost parted with the small reptile that she’d parted with the necklace she’d fallen for. As much as she _loved_ that necklace, the three hundred gold asking price was _far_ beyond _anything_ she could afford. It was heartbreaking, to say the least, but she did her best to keep her hopes high. After all, once she got working and back on her feet, she could save up some money on the side to buy it for herself. Maybe give it to herself as a Gyftmas present for all of the hard work she had to go through.

Making a mental note of her plans in the back of her mind, Alphys moved over to begin looking at some of the stylish clothes the store had. As she skimmed through all of the outfits, she couldn’t help but imagine herself in every single one of them. All of these close were so _cute_! A nice mix of classy, elegant, and attractive, but they also held this hint of fun to them. She’d wanted to pick up nearly every outfit she came across. However, with each passing one, a quick glance at the price tags made her second-guess every set and put it back. Man, she never realized that clothes were so _expensive_. Then again she hadn’t changed her wardrobe in _years_ , instead sticking with the same attire day after day. This was probably why she stopped getting new clothes for herself.

Walking over to a rack of teal-colored tops, a claw began to graze the front shirt. Another super adorable top, she thought. How cute would she look sporting this adorable thing? Without a second thought, her claw instinctively began to move towards the shirt to take it off of the rack.

“Look! It’s her!”

An instantaneous reaction, her claws stopped at the sound of a wayward whisper hitting her ears. It couldn’t be... it just _couldn’t_!

“You mean the girl that–?”

“Yeah.”

_Oh no._

The moment those words fell upon her ears, Alphys’ body immediately tensed up. She could _feel_ their red-hot gaze searing the scales on the back of her head. Ignore them, she told herself. Ignore them and go about business like normal.

“I thought she got fired.”

“She did.”

“Then how can she be shopping at a place like _this_? A high-end clothing store like this, there’s no _way_ she could afford this stuff without a job.”

“She _does_ have a job, remember? She’s probably getting paid _boatloads_ for her little ‘favors’ that she does for other monsters. Not hard to make money when you sell your body and dignity to the highest bidder.”

Alphys could feel her chest tightening up with each word that was fired at her. They were _lies_! She _wasn’t_ a _whore_. She wasn’t a _prostitute_! She knew it was all a fabrication, but when everyone else in the world thought otherwise, how could she hold her head up high? How could she tell herself she wasn’t worth their petty talk if _everyone_ spoke to her like she didn’t deserve to even breathe the same _air_ as them?

“I wouldn’t be surprised if one of her Sugar-Daddy’s was here, too.”

Stop...

“But wouldn’t he be with her if he was? After all, you’ve gotta keep your property on a tight leash.”

Stop it.

“Nah, he’s probably buying her fancy new clothes for doing the deed with him.”

_Stop it!_

“Ha, yeah. After all, those panties won’t stay good for every ride, will they?”

**_Shut up!!_ **

“Alphys!”

Shoulders immediately tensed when the voice called out to her. Of all the times for Frost to come back to her this was one of the _absolute worst_. How she _begged_ and _pleaded_ to disappear from existence. How she _wished_ she could run away and _never_ return, to never be found by another soul ever again.

“Look at that,” The condescending whispers continued to slither around her neck, suffocating her every chance they got. “There he is. _Told you_ she was here with a Sugar-Daddy!”

No, that was a lie! It was _all lies_! She was not some _stripper_ who did favors for other monsters! But now, that’s all they were going to think of her as. That one news article had _ruined_ her. How foolish she was to think that she’d even have the _chance_ to return back to a normal life.

“Oh shit–!”

“Let’s bail!”

Those were the last words Alphys had heard from the two before hearing their footsteps scurry away. She couldn’t look at them. She was frozen in place, her feet nailed to the floor by the condescending words they’d thrown at her. She wanted to get away from here... She wanted to get out of this place!

“Alphys,” Came Frost’s voice once again, this time in a more hushed tone. He reached out a hand to place on her shoulder. “Whatever they–”

“I want to leave.” Her response was automatic, nearly robotic as she struggled to restrain her emotions. She couldn’t break down. Not here. Not now.

“But you haven’t even picked out any–”

“ _I don’t want to be here anymore!_ ” Alphys suddenly howled. Her voice resonated with so much power, it left the ice elemental stunned for a moment. However, with a quick breath, he gathered back his composure.

“Alright–”

Without another word, Alphys had made a beeline for the exit, not once looking back. All she left in her wake was a slew of confused customers staring in her direction, and a heartbroken ice elemental watching the lizard in pity.

* * *

It had been nearly an hour since they’d gotten home. Their first steps in the door Alphys had charged straight for her room and hadn’t left since. Frost had wanted to intervene, to come and console her about what had happened, but the lingering guilt he’d felt over the whole scenario kept him from walking up the steps. He should’ve never taken her to the clothing store. He should’ve taken her to the eye exam and then waited there or taken her home afterwards. He’d taken her back into public and left her alone, where predators had the perfect chance to tear her down. What a fool he’d been!

Finally mustering up the courage, Frost tiptoed to the base of the stairs and stilled himself. Her cries had dissipated from earlier. While there were still soft whimpers coming from her room, it was a drastic improvement from the pained wails of earlier. Taking the steps one by one, Frost made his way up to the room. How he _prayed_ that she would forgive him!

At her door, the elemental gave the faintest of knocks. Her door wasn’t closed, which he quickly discovered when his gentle knocks managed to crack the door open. She must’ve been too upset to even pay mind to the door.

“Alphys...” Frost spoke tenderly. While the door had been left open, he didn’t _dare_ step in uninvited. When Alphys failed to answer, he could feel a lump in his throat. Just like before... God, this was twice in a row, how could he do this!?

With a deep breath, his eyes fell to the floor. “I am sorry, dearest.” He muttered. “I... I had forgotten the rumors about thee were still rampant. I should’ve been more considerate, stayed by thy side, but I didn’t. I am sorry.” Frost reached into his pocket, clutching onto a small box held within. “I will do thy clothes shopping from now on. That way, thou doth not have to fear facing the public and their _lies_ again.”

Even though Frost had poured his heart into those words, it seemed that Alphys was still too hurt by those from before for it to truly bring her out of the spell she was under. Frost couldn’t blame her–she couldn’t even go out _shopping_ without hearing those foul words being spoken at her. “Alphys, I’m so–”

“Don’t be.” She muttered weakly. Frost instantly silenced himself as she spoke. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know it would happen.” With a sniffle, she ran her arm across her snout, wiping away the streaks of snot dripping from it. “I’m not mad at you. I’m just... just...” Her claws clenched the bed sheets, and while Alphys couldn’t finish her sentence Frost knew _exactly_ how she’d intended to end it.

With a heavy sigh, Frost pulled out the foreign object from his pocket. She still needed some time alone, that much was clear. “I called the eyeglass store. I will pick up thy spectacles tomorrow and return them to thee after work.” The elemental gingerly placed the box onto the floor, right where the door had been opened. “I’m going to start cooking dinner. Don’t feel obligated to come if thou aren’t feeling well. I will bring a warm plate up to thee.” Standing back up, he gave one look at the lizard, hoping she’d at least turn to face him. When she stayed still, his heart sank. All he could hope was that a decent meal and a good night’s rest would help bring her spirits back up.

With a soft click of the door signaling Frost’s departure, Alphys finally turned to face the doorway. She hadn’t ignored him–She’d paid perfect attention to him the entire time. She heard him set something by the door before he left, something small. Her eyes widened when she saw a little black box on the floor.

Sliding off the bed, she tiptoed over to the box, getting onto her knees when she was close enough. She could tell it was a jewelry box of some kind, but what it held inside Alphys couldn’t tell from the casing. She opened the box, but as soon as the light hit the object inside, a claw slapped itself over her now agape mouth.

_The ruby necklace._

Frost had been paying attention to that?! She knew he saw her looking at the glass, but... he knew _exactly_ which one she was looking at! But how!? More importantly, _why_ _!?_ This necklace had cost a _fortune_ in the store! How could he have spent _that_ much money on her?! _Why_ would he have spent that much money?! She’d done _nothing_ to deserve this...

_Nothing_ to deserve his kindness.

A dampness began to trace along her fingers. Without even realizing it, she’d begun crying. This gift, This little necklace... this was her ray of sunshine during her darkest hours. Despite every negative word that came her way, every horrible rumor that was spread about her... Frost had still held his hand out to her. This necklace, a gift from the man who saved her life... nothing mattered more to her now than this necklace did.

Without further hesitation, Alphys took the necklace out and put it on. She bounced up, racing over to the mirror propped on the wall. It looked more _beautiful_ around her neck than it had sitting in that store. A claw gently grazed over it, a gentle smile curling up on a tear-streaked face.

She would treasure this necklace forever.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several weeks have passed, and unfortunately Alphys hasn’t had any luck with job interviews. However, all of that changes when Alphys is finally given a chance at the last place she expected.

She couldn’t believe this. _Three whole weeks_ , and not a _single_ interview had come her way.

She had tried _so many times_ to reassure herself that it was only a matter of time, that soon enough someone would want to hire her, but with each passing day with not a single job opportunity given to her, that hope became harder and harder to cling to.

“You will get the job, Alphys...!” She told herself in the mirror as she clipped on her necklace. While she admired the shimmer it gave around her neck, today it wasn’t helping to block out the negative emotions that were swirling around in her head. With a defeated sigh, she hung her head. “Yeah, right...” She muttered apathetically.

Stepping out of the room, Alphys could already catch the scent of eggs and bacon. Per the usual Frost had already been up _long_ before she had and was already making breakfast for the two of them. She wished she had the same kind of enthusiasm as he did. Every day it seemed harder and harder to pull herself out of bed.

Alphys slowly made her way downstairs, going through the living room and to the kitchen. One foot in and Frost was already greeting her with his usual, chipper voice. “Good morning, dearest! Bacon and scrambled eggs are on the menu this morning.”

Sliding herself onto the chair, the disheartened reptile slumped over, chin resting on the table and a defeated look resting on her face. “Morning.” She grumbled, not even bothering to look to the elemental.

It was clear when Frost turned to Alphys that he’d already taken notice of her declined mood. He walked over, placing a few slices of bacon onto the dish in front of her. “What bothers thee?”

Alphys didn’t budge, barely even moving from her position. “You know what’s bothering me.” She muttered.

With a deep breath, Frost straightened his back. “‘Tis thy job searching, correct?”

“Yeah.” 

That initial answer alone was heartbreaking to see coming from her. His mind flashed back to the days before she had gotten put into this situation. She was a strong-willed scientist who was never afraid to speak her mind, always so lively, and ready to tackle whatever got thrown her way. To see that same person unable to give even a scowl to fight off wayward jeers.

How the mighty have fallen.

“Three weeks without a single interview...” Frost muttered in a voice he’d assumed was too quiet for Alphys to hear. 

“I’m sorry.” He was proven wrong almost immediately as Alphys choked out an apology. It was clear that she was on the verge of tears. “I thought I’d have a job by now, but no matter how many applications I send in nobody will even try to give me an interview no matter what I do nobody will even givemeachanceandI–”

“Alphys.” Frost cut off her quickly accelerating explanation with a stern call to her. Without even looking he could tell she was shrinking back when he’d spoken up. Only letting a small moment of silence linger between them Frost finally spoke back up, this time in a more gentle tone. “I know that thou hath been searching endlessly for jobs. Thou doth not needeth to prove anything to me. I have not turned a blind eye to thine efforts.”

Alphys remained silent at Frost’s words. Even though Frost had known she did none of the horrid things that the article accused her of doing, every now and then she still found herself trying to prove to him that she wasn’t what the paper said she was. Perhaps it had been because so many others _did_ believe those words. Though nobody had told her it directly, she knew that the reason she wasn’t getting interviews wasn’t because she wasn’t a strong enough candidate–it was because she’d been labeled as the Underground’s slut and nobody wanted to risk having an employee who would be sleeping around with the other workers and starting up drama. 

How she wished all of this had never happened.

“Eat thine breakfast before it gets cold.” Frost interjected during her rampant thoughts, subtly gesturing towards the food on her plate. She hadn’t noticed that Frost had finished cooking _and_ had cleaned up the mess as well. Seemed she couldn’t help herself from getting lost in her own thoughts. Who could really blame her after everything she’d had to endure? It was hard to think about anything else.

Picking up the fork beside her, Alphys looked down at the dish. Somehow or another Frost had managed to get most of the grease off of the bacon. Impressive. Then again, he _was_ one of the Underground’s best chefs. Something like this was to be expected. While others may have preferred the grease-covered meals of Grillby’s, Alphys found herself taking to quite the opposite. Grease was _nasty_ , especially when it was caked onto things where it shouldn’t have even been. Seriously, who in the right mind would deep-fry their _buns_? It was gross, thus why she rarely ate at the flame elemental’s place.

Alphys brought the fork down into the eggs, but instead of scooping them up, her fork idly twisted in and out of the food. What was she going to do? The one month mark was drawing close, and even though Frost had reassured her that she could stay the guilt of not being able to bring money into the home weighed her down more and more with each passing day. What was she going to do? Nobody would even _look_ at her thanks to this stupid rumor unless it was to mock or demean her. Even the mention of her name earned scowls from passerby’s. At first she’d only tried applying for the jobs she knew she could handle–science and engineering related, maybe some things involving housekeeping–but when interviews failed to come her way, she’d started applying for any job she could find–secretary, garbage disposal, whatever was out there.

The subtle gestures Alphys made didn’t manage to pass by the elemental unnoticed. Playing with the food like she was, it was clear that something was on her mind, and Frost knew _exactly_ what it was. Despite the encouragement he’d given her again and again, it seemed the topic _wouldn’t_ leave her mind. His eyes wandered to the necklace that now hung around her neck. His mind went back to the night that he’d given that necklace to her. The sting of those girls’ words were still lingering in Alphys’ mind, he was certain of it. Frost was glad he was able to scare the girls away with only a scowl. He didn’t want to get his hands dirty if he didn’t need to. Even knowing the dangers that await should she show her face in public again, Alphys was still fighting for a job, fighting to regain her life back, and that necklace she wore was proof of that. It was just a shame that nobody would even give her a fighting _chance_.

_That_ was when Frost finally decided to put his foot down. If nobody was going to help her to get out of this hole she was in, then _by Asgore_ , it was up to _him_ to change her fate for her!

“Alphys,” Frost spoke up to catch her attention. Alphys brought her head back up, tired eyes looking at him. “What if I told thou that I could get thee a job right now?”

Instantaneously, those lifeless eyes began to shine with a hopeful light, the smaller monster practically leaping out of her chair. “ _You can do that?!_ ” She belted out, both shocked and excited for what was about to leave Frost’s lips.

Frost would’ve been lying if he’d said he hadn’t anticipated Alphys not getting hired at all. A small part of him clung to the hope that she’d be able to pull herself out of this ditch, and to be honest, had he presented this offer to her right away, he worried she would decline it and that he would possibly offend her for it. Handing her the job right away might have planted the idea in her head that he didn’t think she was _capable_ of finding a job on her own, and that was _far_ from the case. He’d simply wanted to help her out. He decided to hold onto that idea for a while, using it as a last-case scenario if things got rough–and they certainly _were_ rough at this point in time. He was just relieved to see the excitement she had for this job offer.

“It won’t be the most glamorous of jobs, but ‘tis a job nonetheless–”

“I don’t care! I’ll take it!” Alphys proclaimed, nearly leaning into her food. “I’ll take whatever you can give to me!”

“Alphys! Your shirt!”

The lizard, taking a quick look down and realizing what he was yelling about, threw herself backwards, almost to the point of losing her balance. She quickly pulled her shirt out, examining it thoroughly to make sure no food or stains had made their way onto it. When she saw no sign of either she let out a relieved sigh. This was one of her favorite shirts, too. As the scare of the food washed away, the hot embarrassment of how she acted in front of Frost began to flood on in. “S-sorry.” She muttered shyly, shrinking ever so slightly.

“‘Tis quite alright, dearest.” The elemental gave a deep chuckle, making Alphys’ cheeks burn. “I am relieved to see the enthusiasm thou has.” Straightening his back up, Frost took a deep breath. Alphys’ eyes went wide, leaning in (not quite as much this time) and focusing intently on the elemental’s next words. “Very well. Starting tomorrow, thou shall work for me at mine restaurant.”

There was a moment of hesitance from Alphys. “Y-y... _Your restaurant!_ ” She gasped. While she was positively _elated_ to now have a job, she was a bit _shocked_ to hear that it was working _for_ Frost. Her first assumptions had been that he’d use his connections to get her in somewhere. That’s what the rich people did, right? Though honestly, the more she thought about it the better it probably was for her in the end. After all, being thrown into an unfamiliar work place with strangers who’d perceive her as only having gotten in by connections mixed with the rumors still running rampant? It was a recipe for disaster. At least with Frost she’d be working for someone she _knew_ she could trust, someone who didn’t look down on her like the rest of the public did. However, there was one thing about that job that still scared her...

“Yes, mine restaurant.” Frost repeated for her. “I have already acquired work uniforms that I believe would be _just_ thy size.” At least, that’s what he believed he’d gotten at the store so long ago. He’d gotten the size that matched what the tags on Alphys’ old clothes said, but with Nariko’s comments at the end of their encounter, he’d started second-guessing his choice. Not only that, but it had been _three weeks_ since he’d bought those clothes. After her being practically _starved_ before he’d rescued her and her now eating healthy instead of those microwave noodles she always seemed to have stashed away somewhere in the lab, there was a good chance that she’d lost some weight. How much was hard to say–spending every day with someone made it much harder to notice subtle changes like that... and like _hell_ he was going to _ask a woman_ her _weight_. That right there was a _death sentence_. “I’ll have thee try them on before I head to work today. If they don’t fit, I will go out and buy thee a different size.”

“Frost...” 

“I won’t lie to thee, it won’t be an easy job.” His eyes narrowed on her. “Thou shall be thrust back into the public eye, in direct contact with other people. Those nasty rumors will most certainly be shot at you from day to day.” There was slight hesitance from Frost, a small scowl on his face. This was a _huge_ risk for him to take. He wondered not only if _she_ could handle it, but if _he_ could as well. This would no doubt taint his own reputation.

No, he had to remind himself that he was doing this for his _friend_ , to help someone who’d had it _far_ worse than he had. It would all be worth it in the end, he told himself.

Alphys eyes wandered down to the dish in front of her. “I was already anticipating that with whatever job I happened to get.” She admitted to Frost. She just prayed that she would be able to endure it long enough to be able to repay Frost’s kindness, however long that may take. She hoped with his support she would be able to fight her way through the adversity. With a quick shake of her head, Alphys shooed away those negative thoughts. “B-but I don’t care!” She did her best to bounce back. “I’ll do whatever it takes to earn my keep around here!”

With one deep breath, Frost gave her a solemn nod. “Understood.” He told her. “Then from today onward, thou shall worketh for me.” With a subtle gesture, he pointed towards the food still on her plate. “Now eat up before thy food gets cold. We shall try the uniform after we eat, and then settle the rest tonight.”

With a beaming smile, Alphys gave Frost an eager salute. “Yes, _sir_!” With a chuckle shared between the two monsters, they joyfully went back to eating breakfast, the smaller of the two eager to move on to the next stage.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alphys has started her job working for Frost. Just as he warned her, the job is far from glamorous, and being back out in the public has not helped to make the job any easier.

How Alphys _wished_ she could say that this job was _spectacular_ , that it was _just perfect for her._ How she wished she could say that she _loved_ working at this restaurant so far. How she _wished_ she could come home with fun stories to share at the dinner table.

But she couldn’t.

She was one week into her new job, and while she’d anticipated things being bad a part of her hoped that it wouldn’t get to _this_ level. She prayed that, being in Frost’s own establishment, that she would be shielded from the cruelty of the other monsters more than she was outside of it.

But she wasn’t.

One of the only few positive things she could say was that the workplace was absolutely _gorgeous_. The restaurant was massive, with booths of varying sizes lining the walls and small clothed tables filling the spaces between. The walls were decorated with pristine white wallpaper that was only interrupted occasionally by pinewood beams that accented them perfectly. Black vines danced up the beams, and at a few of their tips radiant red roses bloomed outward and brightened up the room. A waxed and polished marble floor sparkled beneath the feet of the patrons and the tables, giving the restaurant a very regal feel to it.

The booths had seats made of a black leather and were complimented by a pinewood table resting between each seat. All of the tables were accented with a small vase, the print on their sides mimicking that on the beams, and each one had a single rose popping out of its top. Alphys wondered if they were real, as flowers were _very_ difficult to grow underground and cost a _fortune_ to own real ones. Many people opted to decorate their homes with fake flowers or ones easy to grow, but the ones on the tables looked so _real_. Either they were elaborate fakes or Frost was _ridiculously_ rich.

The tables in the center of the restaurant were all draped with a white table cloth. Each table only had two pinewood chairs sitting at each, and a small candle acting as the centerpiece for each. Alphys had seen many extra chairs in the back, wondering why no more than two were at each table, but as patrons came in, it seemed clear they were intended for couples to be seated at, while the booths were made more for the large parties and families.

Across from the entrance, there was one last seating area: A bar that showcased wines from all over the Underground. Once again it baffled Alphys how many wines Frost could afford. Like flowers, wines were also quite the rarity in the Underground, making them as valuable as bottles of liquid gold. Half of the names of the wines she couldn’t pronounce, but there was no doubt in her mind that they were some top-quality wines lining those shelves. The stools that rested by the bar were all made with the same black leather as the booths, but instead of a hardwood countertop the bar was made of the same type of marble that the floors were made of. Alphys wasn’t sure what rested beneath the counter, but she assumed it to be the usual items for a bar: Wine glasses, mugs, and so on.

Hanging above, a beautiful crystal chandelier dangled from a triable point in the marble ceiling. Each of the beams that encircled the light fixture held small little trinkets to spice up the restaurant, each looking somehow rustic and regal at the same time. Several small hanging candles dangled from the beams, each candle encased in a small glass vase to ensure no wax would fall below. They had to have been changed recently, Alphys thought, as they looked like they’d been freshly lit that morning.

Words couldn’t begin to describe how _refined_ the restaurant looked, but for as beautiful as the restaurant was, not even its shimmering glory was enough to overshadow how _terrible_ the job had been so far. She supposed she should’ve expected she would’ve gotten a position like this. She had zero cooking skills, so it figured that she wouldn’t be a chef. With her public image at an all-time-low there was _no_ way anyone would let her wait on them, so waitress was out of the question. The restaurant was a “seat yourself” one, so there was no need for a hostess job. There was no _way_ Frost would give her an important job like inventory management right out of the gate. So what did that leave?

_Busgirl_.

At the very least, it was a simple job. All she had to do was keep the place clean. Wash the tables, clean the counters, mop the floors, scrub the dishes–make sure that every little inch of the place was as clean as could be. To be fair, Frost _did_ tell her that it wasn’t going to be a very “nice” job. However, this hadn’t been _quite_ what she was expecting. In retrospect she supposed it made sense. She’d been doing housework the entirety of the time she was unemployed to make up for not bringing money into the home. This was basically doing the same thing except in this scenario she was cleaning up the equivalent of a giant kitchen and dining room. It was a bit harder than cleaning up the house–in the restaurant, when one mess was cleaned up another one was being made at the same time. It was tiring to say the least, having to run around and constantly clean spot after spot. However the hardest part of the job wasn’t even cleaning up the messes.

It was the patrons.

It didn’t matter that they were in a high-class establishment, the monsters of the Underground were still just as relentless to her as they were anywhere else. They would call her every name in the dictionary–slut, whore, cunt, prostitute–there seemed to be no end to the names. Customers would intentionally make messes just to watch her sink down and clean up their messes. Some of them were even trying to get her _fired_ , going so far as lying to Frost about her doing inappropriate things at work. She was relieved that Frost didn’t believe a single word she’d said–He’d been watching any second where he wasn’t waiting on patrons himself and knew that she hadn’t done a _single_ thing those customers told him.

While she was immensely grateful to Frost for all that he’d done, both in and out of the restaurant, an overwhelming sense of guilt lingered over her, too. She wasn’t the only one who was affected by the patron’s behaviors–some of them were making foul remarks to Frost as well. There weren’t that many–maybe only one or two a day–but to Alphys that was _still_ too many. Monsters asked him why he would allow someone like _her_ to work here. Some were making comments about Frost turning the restaurant into a brothel. Others claimed that he was a pimp and that they’d soon see many more “young women like Alphys” working at the restaurant. Alphys hadn’t been to the restaurant before being hired, but there was no doubt in her mind that all of these _foul_ rumors were hurting customer flow into the establishment.

She was nothing but a burden on Frost, a stain on his reputation. It was clear nobody wanted her around. All she was doing was taking up space and dragging down anyone she came into contact with. A part of her wondered, would anyone even _notice_ if she were to simply _disappear_ from the Underground?

After a painstaking day at the restaurant the work day was finally over. The last patron had left, Frost was nearly done putting away all of the food and cleaning up the kitchen, and Alphys was wiping down the last table.

While the days were hard and long, none seemed to be as hard as today. Nearly every patron that stopped by seemed hell-bent on giving Alphys a hard time while they were there. The name calling, the “accidents”, the slander–practically three-fold today.

There seemed to be no end in sight for her.

Finishing with the last spot, Alphys took the rags and brought them in to the kitchen laundry basket. At the same time Frost was putting the last dish on the drying rack.

“There we go.” He murmured, smiling proudly at his handiwork. Spotting the lizard, he began to walk around the counter to her. “Good work today, Dearest.”

Frost’s comment was met with a defeated sigh. “Thanks.” She muttered. While Alphys didn’t face Frost, he could still see her expression–it was empty. Not sad, not hurt... _empty_. That alone was enough to shake him to his core.

When he was close enough Frost put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a sympathetic look. “Alphys, I knoweth it’s hard, but don’t let those foul words get to thee. Thou and I knoweth that all of those spiteful words aren’t true. Thou art nothing that those monsters claim thee to be.”

Despite his attempts at encouraging her Alphys expression remained stagnant. She was hurting, and even despite his best efforts it didn’t seem like they were healing those wounds at all, but _damn_ if he wasn’t going to keep _trying_! “Come dearest.” His hand slid off of her shoulder. “Let us return home.”

“You go ahead.” Alphys muttered weakly, earning a raised eyebrow from the elemental. “I think I’m going to go for a walk.”

“Oh.” Frost muttered. “Very well, then. We shall go–?”

“Actually,” She stopped him again, once again causing Frost’s eyebrows to raise and his anxiety levels to start skyrocketing. “I want to go by myself.” 

Oh no, _this_ wasn’t good. Frost had remembered the _last_ time he’d let Alphys explore on her own. “But dearest, what about if the others see you?”

“Please,” Her voice began to choke up. Frost could feel his heart _racing_. “I need some time alone.”

Oh no. This was raising red flags all around. This _couldn’t_ have been a simple walk, that he was sure of. “Alphys, please, if you need to talk about something I–”

“Frost, _please_.” Her hands folded in front of her chest, and while she continued to beg and plead, she still refused to look the chef in the eyes. “I need some time alone.”

Frost’s eyes narrowed. He wanted Alphys to feel like she had the freedom to go out and do what she wanted, but this? With the way she’d been acting he was _positive_ that there was some kind of hidden motive to this “walk” of hers. Thinking fast, he brewed up a scheme to get to the bottom of things.

“Very well.”

Stepping to the side, he gave Alphys a clear path to the door. “When doth thou believe thou will return?”

“I don’t know.” She murmured. “An hour? Maybe two?”

Frost had a gut feeling that that was a lie. He’d honestly wished Alphys would be more straightforward about things, but given her situation that probably wasn’t easy for her to do. Perhaps Frost was getting too paranoid? He’d messed up twice already, he did _not_ want that to turn that into a third time. 

“Very well, then.” Frost caught himself before he’d made his next suggestion–to call on the phone when she was on her way home. That was something that they still needed to take care of–Alphys’ cellphone, which he’d learned early on had been ruined while she “lived” in Waterfall. It hadn’t been a high priority to replace it since the two of them were almost always with each other. When they weren’t, Alphys was at home with access to the house phone. He’d remembered asking Alphys in passing about getting one, but she’d turned down the offer, much to his surprise. She seemed constantly glued to the thing when she worked in the lab. Perhaps she’d wanted to avoid having people harass her by phone? Perhaps she didn’t want to be tempted to go onto Undernet only to find people degrading her online. She had her reasons, so Frost never thought to bring up the topic again. “Make sure thou art back before midnight.” The elemental instructed her. “Am I clear?”

“Yes sir.” Alphys answered in a monotonous voice. With that she made her way out the door, not even giving another look back as she exited. Frost immediately checked his watch. Thirty seconds. That would give her enough of a head-start. Once that second hand hit twelve, it was time to put his plan into action.

* * *

Alphys had traveled _quite_ far. She’d walked through the entirety of Hotland and even halfway through Waterfall. Frost had been following a safe distance away, keeping Alphys close enough to intervene if something happened but not too close to where she might discover he was following her. Alphys’ sudden desire to go for a walk drew too much suspicion into his mind, and Frost _knew_ he had to find out what she was up to. It was a good thing he had followed his instincts, because the moment Alphys’ had stopped, all of his suspicions had been confirmed.

Around the corner, beside a heaping pile of trash that had fallen down from the surface, the small lizard stopped. The Underground dump: it was where most monsters came to scavenge for different items to use. Items that the humans found of no use anymore always ended up in the dump. Coolers, DVDs, mannequins–you name it, there was probably a good chance that it had been in the dump at some point or another. However, it wasn’t the dump itself that had Frost concerned for Alphys’ safety.

It was the edge to the abyss that she was staring down into.

It was almost automatic. She’d completely bypassed every single heap of trash around her, instead moving straight towards that void, that endless pit that one of the waterfalls spilled into that everyone knew about. So many rumors floated around about what exactly lay at the bottom of it. Nobody knew for sure what was down there, which rumors were true and which ones were hearsay, but there was one thing they _did_ know:

Whatever went down _never_ came back up.

Frost stared intently as Alphys stared motionlessly into the darkness below her. His hand was submerged in the half-foot deep water that surrounded the entirety of the dump. With a flick of his hand, he could turn the entire place to ice, and if Alphys tried any funny business, he would use that same magic to freeze her feet to the ground. Extreme? Yes, but if it came down to it, he would not hesitate.

The two of them were there for a long while. The elemental’s eyes were locked onto the lizard, his heart racing and pounding deafeningly into his ears. He couldn’t look away, though–he couldn’t relax for even a _single_ second. That would be all it took to lose that soul for the rest of eternity. How badly he wanted to run out and grab her, but he feared that doing so may drive her over. What to do?! What to do–

“Hey.” 

Frost flinched, and when he’d disturbed the water around himself with the sudden jerk his heart skipped a beat, fearing his location had been given away. It took a moment before he realized that this stranger _wasn’t_ talking to him–no, her attention had been on Alphys.

This _couldn’t_ be good.

Watching closely at what was happening, he’d seen Alphys turn her head to the stranger–a fish monster with rather _unruly_ red hair–but Alphys didn’t offer the stranger more of a reaction than that.

“You know, it’s not exactly a good idea to be hanging out around here.” The fish commented. She leaned against one of the piles of garbage, a safe enough distance away from Alphys. Much to Frost’s surprise, she hadn’t made a move... _yet_. That didn’t mean she wasn’t planning on _making_ one soon.

Instead of giving the stranger any kind of verbal response the lizard only stared at the woman, the empty look still lingering in her eyes. Seeing that, the fish monster sighed, crossing her arms. “It’s not worth it, you know. Sure, things are going to shit right now, but there’s a brighter future waiting for all of us down here, including you. I’m _know_ it.”

With that comment Alphys looked away. “If you knew who I was, you wouldn’t be saying that.”

“Alphys, right?”

Both Alphys and Frost flinched when the stranger said her name, Alphys eyes shooting _right_ back to her.

“H-how do you kn–”

“It’s part of my job.” She answered before Alphys could finish. “I mainly keep tabs on people here in Waterfall, but I’m also required to know the faces of everyone in a position of royalty, and well, you _were_ considered royalty. At least, until that article came along.”

Alphys’ expression fell at the mention of that article, causing something to _flare up_ inside of Frost. If she _knew_ of the article and had the _fleeting_ suspicion that Alphys would jump–which apparently she _did_ by that little speech she gave–then _why_ the _hell_ would she think it was okay to bring it up!?

“If you ask me, that article’s nothing but a bunch of shitty lies.” She added, once again earning an eyebrow raising from the shorter monster. “The Canine Unit in Snowdin has told me all about those people who write the news articles–interesting news is so scarce for them to come by that they practically _leap_ at any B.S. they can get their hands on, regardless of whether or not those claims have been backed up. If they don’t have any juicy gossip, then they just fill the paper with puzzles and whatnot.” The fish gave an irritated snort.

“The... Canine Unit?” Alphys repeated.

With that, the stranger’s eye widened, and had the other not been covered by an eyepatch, it would’ve been just as wide. “Oh, that’s right. You probably don’t know me.” Though they were a good distance away, the stranger held out a hand. “The name’s Undyne.”

Frost’s shoulders stiffened at that name. Undyne!? The _captain_ of the _Royal Guard_?!

“Undyne?” Alphys repeated. She gave a weak smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Same.” With a nod of the head Undyne gestured to one of the heaps of garbage. “You know, you can actually find some pretty good stuff down here.” She told Alphys. “I was down here looking for some swords, but I’ve been finding some really interesting things along the way.” Her eyebrows raised. “Wanna come scavenge with me? I’m sure a braniac like you could find all sorts of fun things to work with in this place.”

There was hesitance as Alphys thought on the offer. Frost instinctively leaned in, anxiously anticipating the answer she’d give the captain. To his relief, Alphys gave a slow nod of the head. “S-sure.”

With a beaming grin, Undyne put her hands on her hips. “Alright! Let’s get right down to work!” She cheered. “There’s a lot of trash to dig through, so let’s not waste a moment!”

* * *

Frost wasn’t sure how she did it, but Undyne had somehow managed to keep Alphys’ mind off of all the dark things that had been plaguing her as of late. The duo spent near an hour scavenging for different items in the dump. They managed to find a bag to carry their spoils in, which Undyne gave to Alphys, given the larger amount of items she’d grabbed. Under any normal circumstance Frost wouldn’t have even _considered_ letting Alphys bring home things from the _dump_ , but given the situation, something like this seemed to be just what she needed to bring her spirits back up. Certainly with a little washing outside, they’d be clean enough to come into his home.

Frost’s inner dialogue was cut off when he noticed Alphys getting up from the trash heap, looking like she was ready to call it quits. She wasn’t back to a hundred percent, but judging by the calmer expression on her face it was enough to get her to fight another day.

“I should get heading back.” Alphys spoke up. “If I stay out any longer Frost is going to start worrying about me.” 

At the mention of his name, the elemental tensed. Seems like Alphys was about ready to leave, and if she was, he needed to head out ASAP. If she returned home and he wasn’t there, she’d surely start questioning where he’d been, _especially_ with his pants now sopping wet and covered in the filth of the dump.

“Frost?” An eyebrow raised as Undyne looked over to Alphys.

“Yeah. He’s my boss... and uh, kind of my landlord, too?” She didn’t really want to admit that she was housing with Frost because of the whole predicament with the paper and losing her job, and the last thing she wanted was to have to explain her situation to Undyne.

“Is he by chance an ice elemental?” Undyne questioned. “Tall? Red ice? Wears glasses?”

Wait, did Frost just hear that right? How could Undyne have known who he was? As she said, she only kept tabs on the residents of Waterfall. He was a resident of the Capital and his restaurant was in Hotland, so he wouldn’t have been on her list. She’d never _once_ stepped foot into his restaurant–he would’ve remembered someone with a stature as high as hers coming to his establishment. The only place he could think of where she’d heard of him would be in the history archives, but she’d have no need to be searching through files of those who served in the war against the humans before they were forced Underground. Besides, those books didn’t tell what monsters looked like present-day. How in the world did she know about him?

“Yeah, that’s him.” Alphys nodded. “Do you know him?”

“Nah.” Undyne shook her head. “Just seen him around.” For a split second, Frost _swore_ he’d seen her steal a glance in his direction.

“Oh. Well, I’m sure you’d like him if you met him. He’s a super sweet guy. Really nice, caring...” A hand moved behind Alphys’ neck, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. Hearing Alphys say those words about him... it made the elemental’s heart flutter. “Maybe if we meet again, I’ll introduce you to him.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Undyne told her. She pat Alphys’ back. “Come on. Like you said, you ought to be getting back home.” She leaned in slightly. “Would you like me to walk you back? I can pick off any _punks_ who try to start a fight with you.”

“No, don’t worry about it.” Alphys gave the fish a small but reassuring smile. “Besides, it probably wouldn’t be good if you were caught with me. It might ruin your reputation.” Her expression fell. Frost wondered for a moment if Alphys was thinking back to the restaurant, and to the elemental. He hoped she wasn’t feeling guilty for what happened there. It wasn’t her fault–

“Fuck that shit.” Undyne’s crude tongue brushed off Alphys’ comment. “I don’t care about any of that.” She gave Alphys a toothy grin. “I’m just here to help out a friend!”

Alphys eyes went wide. “F... Friend...?”

“Yeah, friend. You and me.” She gave a half-laugh. “You’re cool with that, right?”

A genuine, heartfelt smile finally appeared on Alphys’ face. “Y-yes, of course!” Her tail began to twitch just slightly. It seemed like she was trying to hold back from having her tail go full-wag.

“That’s what I like to hear!” Undyne chirped. With one final laugh she gave her new friend a pat on the shoulder. “Well with that settled, I suppose you ought to get going. Didn’t you say your landlord-dude was going to start worrying about you?”

“Oh yeah!” Alphys quickly hoisted the bag of goodies she’d found over her shoulder. “Thanks for today.” She gave Undyne one last smile. “It meant a lot to me.”

“No problem!” Undyne reassured her. “I’ll see you around, okay?” 

Alphys gave one final nod. “Mh-hmph!” Gripping the drawstrings of her bags, Alphys began to make her way out of the dump, which meant it was Frost’s cue to head off too. He’d have to remember to thank Undyne the next time he saw her. After all, she _saved_ Alphys life. There weren’t enough ways to say thank you for what she’d done. There was no doubt in his mind that Undyne would be a great friend for Alphys to have, especially in this dark time.

Someone like her was _exactly_ what Alphys needed right now.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s been another rough day at the restaurant, and once again, Alphys is having a hard time coping with everything. In an attempt to take her mind off of her troubles, Frost decides to teach Alphys some new skills.

Yet another day working at the restaurant. Another day of mopping floors and clearing tables. Another day of washing dishes and cleaning tablecloths.

Another day of being tormented by the customers.

The small monster gave a heavy sigh as she scrubbed at the dried food on one of the plates. The last customer of the day was still finishing up their meal out in the restaurant. Though the cleanliness of the establishment was kept up as well as Alphys could manage, she’d still needed to do one final round of the place. That couldn’t be done until the customers had all left. Thus, Alphys stayed in the kitchen, cleaning up the last of the dirty dishes that had been sitting in the back: The last few plates and cups from the previous customers and the cooking utensils Frost had used to make the dishes.

The kitchen was quite massive in size, which was surprising given that only one person worked back there. Top-notch appliances lined the kitchen, and the fanciest of gadgets and gizmos lined the counters. Mixers, bread slicers, blenders, food processors—if it existed, it was there. The walls and counters were pristine white and complimented the stainless-steel appliances perfectly. At the back corner of the kitchen there was a giant steel door that lead into a walk-in fridge. Alphys hadn’t been back there, so she had no idea what rested inside. At the other end of the kitchen was a pinewood door that lead into Frost’s office, yet another place Alphys had yet to step into. She assumed that was where Frost did all of his managerial stuff like budgeting and ordering.

Rinsing off the soap from the dirty plate in her hand, Alphys stacked it neatly on the drying rack. While there was a dishwasher, Frost seemed to favor hand-washing dishes over using the appliance. Thus, it seemed only appropriate that Alphys follow the same beliefs as him.

Her hands idly waved around in the soapy water for the next item before her hands brushed up against a hilt. She lifted it out of the water, revealing the sharp blade of the most key tool in the entire kitchen–the cooking knife. Her shoulders fell, eyes locking onto the sharp edge of the blade as her mind wandered elsewhere.

How she wished she could say that she enjoyed working at the restaurant. How she wished she could say this job helped her get back on track, but that would have been a lie. A bold-faced lie… Just like the one Gaster had told about her. Having ‘returned’ as a mere busgirl at a restaurant made talk _fly_. People were telling their friends she’d only gotten this job by paying in sexual favors. People were calling her _horrid_ names as she walked by their tables. There seemed to be _no_ end to the bullying.

A lump began to form in her throat as all of those memories began to flood her mind. The condescending stares, The mocking sneers… She’d tried to tell herself to hang in, that soon enough, her luck would turn around, but it was days like this that made that light at the end of the tunnel seem like nothing more than a lie she continued to tell herself to keep on going.

From across the kitchen the double-doors leading to the main seating area of the restaurant slowly opened. Well-oiled hinges kept the doors from making any noise, allowing the elemental to slip in unnoticed. The first thing his eyes fell upon: The knife in Alphys’ hands. His mind flashing back to the night in Waterfall, panic began to well up inside of him. After witnessing what he had the night before it was hard not to assume that she would try something extreme. To make matters worse, he couldn’t use his ice magic to stop her without lunging towards her suddenly. He couldn’t freeze any liquid at will, only liquids that were touching his body. _That_ seemed like the _worst_ idea, moving towards her without warning. It could prompt her to make a sudden, brash move that would end in tragedy. What to do, what to do!?

Like a light switch being turned on, Frost suddenly perked up. Undyne! She’d stopped Alphys without getting anywhere _near_ her. She didn’t need fancy magic or anything of the sort–just a few kind words and a fun activity to take her mind off of her troubles, even if it was only for a moment. Perhaps Frost was thinking _way_ too out of the box. Perhaps all Alphys needed was a simple distraction, something to take her mind off of those dark thoughts.

With a gentle cough to clear his throat, Frost took a step towards Alphys, catching her attention. With a quiet gasp Alphys went back to cleaning the knife in hand. “Sorry, I got distracted.”

“‘Tis quite alright, dearest.” He reassured her, slowly making his way over beside her. “The last customer has left for the evening. Just a little more cleaning to do and we may headeth back home.”

“Okay.” 

The minimalist responses were enough proof that Alphys’ mood had declined, making the elemental more uneasy by the minute. He had to think of something to get her mood back up, though given her situation he doubted that a simple conversation would do the trick. Think, think... Just like the dump, he had to think of _something_ to get the lizard going again–

A stroke of inspiration hit the elemental, his face brightening up instantly. With a deep breath and a smirk, Frost rolled up his sleeves. “Alright dearest, wash thy hands and clean thyself up!” He ordered.

Her eyes widened as Frost gave his command. Alphys looked up to the elemental with confusion. “B-but, I’m not finished washing the dishes–”

“Don’t worry about the dishes, dearest. They can wait.” With one swift movement, Frost pulled out a few clean kitchen utensils. “We’ll be dirtying a few more in just a moment!” Alphys’ eyebrow raised as he mentioned dirtying more dishes. What exactly did this elemental have brewing in that icy skull of his? 

Despite still being confused the lizard followed along with it, taking the bar of soap and giving her claws a thorough scrubbing. Her eyes followed Frost as he wandered about the kitchen and into the walk-in fridge. He’d spent several minutes in there, and Alphys was tempted to follow him in to see what he was doing. She _really_ wanted to know what it looked like in the fridge. Considering it was walk-in, it had to be huge, and as Frost continued to spend more time in there her imagination went wild with how big it really was. Either it was _humongous_ , or Frost was just having a hay-day in there. There was a possibility he was doing the latter. She seriously doubted that the cold temperature had an effect on a monster made entirely of _ice_. It would be easy for him to take his sweet old time in there without realizing how long he’d been inside. 

Just a moment before her curiosity got the better of her, she saw Frost emerge from the fridge, arms–or rather the strange appendages that slightly resembled arms–full of fresh produce. Seemed he’d used some kind of shape-shifting magic to make his arms big enough to carry all of the cooking supplies: Lettuce, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, bacon, and beneath all of that he seemed to be carrying a jar of what Alphys could only assume was mayonnaise.

“Here we are!” With that, the items were discarded onto the table. His arms morphed back to their usual appearance, the elemental topping off the act by cracking his icy knuckles. “All washed up, dearest?”

Alphys stiffened, her shoulders tensing up. “H-hai!”

Frost raised an eyebrow at Alphys’ peculiar response. “Yes, hello dearest?” He responded back, unsure of what in the world she’d meant by that. “Did thou believe I’d left the restaurant for a moment?”

Shrinking in on herself, Alphys’ face turned red. “N-no, s-sorry...” She stammered. “I meant ‘hai’ as in ‘yes.’”

The confused look still didn’t leave Frost’s face. “Those words are related?”

Alphys could feel herself shying away. “I-it’s Japanese... F-for yes.” She admitted. “M... my family is Japanese... A-at least on my mom’s side... I-it slips out sometimes.” God, she must have sounded like a total _weeb_ for saying that in front of him. She did her best to hide it, but on rare occasions, her tongue would slip back into Japanese. She wasn’t _fluent_ by any means, but when she was little, she’d find herself learning and repeating many of the phrases her mother uttered while working around the house. Most people didn’t _know_ her mother was Japanese however, and often associated her slips with her fascination with anime. They were completely unrelated, but any outsider looking in would’ve assumed that she was merely _pretending_ to be Japanese. Just like the weeaboos.

Frost gave a slow nod, giving an expression that looked like he’d had an “aha” moment. “Ah. now that thou sayeth that, thy tongue _did_ sound of Asian descent.” Noticing the reddened cheeks, he pat her shoulder reassuringly to help her calm down. “Now then, if thou art ready we should get to our lesson. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go home!”

At that, Alphys eyes widened, looking back up to Frost. “L-lesson?!”

“Yes, thy lesson!” A confident gleam appeared in his eyes as he leaned over, pulling out a cutting board from seemingly nowhere. “I am going to teach thee how to maketh... a sandwich!”

It was Alphys’ turn to look confused. “A... sandwich?”

“Yes, dearest, a sandwich!” He pointed an index finger at her. “It’s not as simple as a task as one might deem it to be. At _my_ restaurant I will only permit the _finest_ foods leave this kitchen.” He placed both hands on his hips. “After all, a meal is not only that to the stomach, but to the _eyes_ as well. A dish cannot merely _taste_ delicious–it must _look_ delicious as well!”

“Wh... what?” While Frost had offered her an explanation, Alphys was still rather baffled. They were making a _sandwich_? This late at night?

“Enough chit-chat, dearest.” Frost threw out his arms in an exaggerated yet elegant gesture. “We must start cooking now if we are to maketh it home in a timely fashion!”

“B-but–!”

“No excuses, dearest! I shall not taketh ‘no’ for an answer!” The ever-excited smirk still remained on his face. “Now come, dearest! Thy cutting board is waiting!”

She was still _awfully_ baffled, but at this point she didn’t think there’d be getting any out of a mandatory cooking lesson. If Frost thought he was going to be here for only a short while, then _whoo boy_ , was he sure in for a surprise.

Hopefully they’d at least get out before midnight.

* * *

“Thou art doing _splendid_ , dearest.” Frost encouraged, hovering over Alphys’ shoulder as he watched her create her art. The shorter lizard stood atop a small stool Frost had pulled out for her, finishing up with cutting the last slices of vegetables for her culinary project.

While the sandwich seemed like it would’ve been easy to start off with, Frost was _very_ particular about how it looked. The lettuce had to be _just_ the right color, the vegetables had to be sliced evenly and beautifully, the bacon cooked _just right_ –and of course, Frost was adamant about not using any sort of specialized tools to help. No mandolin, no bread-slicer–no nothing. Just the old-fashioned knife and cutting board. While it made the task more tedious, she completely understood why Frost was having her do it this way. It was the same with laboratory testing–one had to learn the manual methods of performing experiments before learning the automated way of doing so. Otherwise when said automation failed or was no longer available, they’d have nothing to fall back on to continue their work.

Having made up the perfect slices of each vegetable Frost had brought out, it was time to move to the bread. She cleaned off the cutting board with a washcloth and made sure to pat it down dry before moving the bread to it.

“Under normal circumstances I would have thee maketh thine own bread from scratch.” He informed her. “However, bread dough takes too long to rise and too long to bake, and we must be heading home soon, lest we tire ourselves too much for work tomorrow.” Though she couldn’t see it from behind her, Frost gave her a wink. “Perhaps on a day off, I shall teach thee how to baketh thine own loafs. For now we must settle with the leftovers we have.”

Nodding idly to everything he was saying Alphys put the towel to the side, grasping the loaf and placing it on the cutting board in front of her. She reached over to grab the knife she’d been using for the vegetables, only to be stopped by Frost once again.

“Ah-ah.” He corrected her. “Not that one, dearest.” Taking her hand, he directed her over to a different knife, one that seemed to have a bumpy blade to it. “Thou must use the serrated knife when slicing thy bread. Using the other knives will cause thee to crush the loaf under thy knife.”

Alphys’ chin raised at that comment. Different knives for different foods? She’d assumed that all knives worked the same way on everything. Showed what little she knew about cooking. Hopefully she wasn’t too much of an embarrassment for Frost to have to teach, she thought

When Frost had let go of her hand, she grasped the proper knife in her hand. She took it up in her right, but then switched it to her left. Once again, she was stopped by Frost.

“Ah-ah! Remember what we said, dearest?” He stopped her again. “Always cut with thy dominant hand.” Feeling the heat of humiliation rise in her cheeks, she meekly switched the knife back to her right. “Doing so will lessen the risk of injury while cooking.” He informed her.

Alphys gave a shy nod. So many little details to try and remember... it really _was_ like the experiments she used to run. She reached for the loaf, ready to start cutting, but as her palm settled down on top of it, she felt an icy hand rest on top of hers. Wtihin moments the heat of humiliation quickly changed to a completely different kind of heat.

“Now then dearest, while holding bread, thou _must_ take care. Keep thy grip firm but gentle.” He instructed her. “Too forceful and thou will crush the bread, however the loaf must be held firmly enough so that it does not slip while cutting.” With that, Alphys felt another hand slide over her right. Frost gently guided her claw, as well as the knife within it, to the loaf. “To ensure that thy bread retains its shape thou must use a sawing motion while cutting.” He informed her. With the blade in place he moved her hand up and down the bread. Slowly the knife began to dig in. “Think of it like cutting a plank.”

As Frost guided her through the motions Alphys could feel her fingertips becoming tingly. It felt strange to be taught like this–every other hands-on teaching experience had been a “figure it out yourself” situation. Reading up on techniques to learn how to properly execute them, but to have someone _guide_ her like this... it felt _nice_. It made her feel cared for, in a way.

“Thou art doing a _wonderful_ job.” Frost’s compliment cut off her inner ramblings. A flattered, goofy smile grew on her face at the compliment. She tried her best not to let her shoulders tense, but she wasn’t sure that she’d succeeded in that.

Trying not to let the compliment throw her game off too much, Alphys tried to focus her attention back on the bread only to notice the crumbs that were now littering the cutting board. A look of panic crossed her face. “A-ah! Th-the crumbs!” She stammered, scared of the scolding she imagined was coming.

“‘Tis quite alright, dearest.” The chef reassured her. “Bread will do that when cut by hand. The important thing is that thou art getting a nice, evenly-sliced piece of bread.” 

Frost’s hands slowly began to lift off of hers. In a slight panic Alphys stiffened, her hands freezing in place. “A-ah, Frost–!”

“Thou art doing _fine_ dearest.” He reassured her, his hands moving to her shoulders. “Have confidence in thy work.”

Timidly, Alphys continued to work on the bread, a nervous expression on her face. As she continued to saw, her teacher continued with his encouraging words. “Thou art doing _great_ , dearest.” It took a little while of encouraging, but by the second slice Alphys was beginning to relax in her work. The only problem: There was now an awkward silence lingering between them as she slowly cut slices out of the loaf, only being filled by the occasional words of praise from Frost. She let the silence linger for a short while, but after a bit it became too awkward, and she knew she had to do _something_ to fill the empty space.

“So uh,” Alphys began, a nervous edge to her voice. “About all of that stuff I brought home the other night–”

“Do not fret about it, dearest.” Frost cut her off. Yes, all her little treasures from that night. He’d made sure to give them proper washing before allowing them in her house. As long as they weren’t covered in filth, he saw no reason she couldn’t keep them in the house. She had _some_ kind of plan for them, otherwise why would she have gone to the trouble of collecting them in the first place?

After the reassurance, Alphys gave a gentle smile. “Thank you.” She hummed, moving her knife over to cut the next slice. “The problem I’m facing now is that I don’t really have any tools to _build_ anything.” She told him. “I don’t know if you have any tools around the house. Ideally all I’d need is a screwdriver, a hammer, and wire cutters.”

“Really? Is that all thou needeth?” Frost’s eyebrows raised. Either what she planned to build was very simple or she had some unique work-around that didn’t require power tools of any kind. “I have those items at my abode along with nails and screws if thou needeth them. I will bringeth them to thy room either tonight or tomorrow morning.”

Alphys beamed. She wanted to turn around to look at Frost with the big grin she was toting, but she withheld, knowing full-certain what would happen if she stopped focusing on where she was cutting. “Thank you so much!” She chirped, giddily moving to her next slice. “That will help out a lot!”

The elemental gave a soft chuckle at her ecstatic response. “Of course, dearest.” 

Alphys echoed his chuckle herself. Frost could’ve _sworn_ he heard her humming to herself. “Ideally, I’d love to have a soldering iron along with some solder, too. It will make the wiring _exponentially_ easier to take care of,” She commented, more thinking aloud than speaking to Frost, “but I can do it without any of that. It just takes some electrical tape and a little more creativity is all.”

Frost’s eyebrows raised. “Doest thou _have_ electrical tape?”

“Well...” Alphys shied away. “No... B-but I’m sure I’d be able to find some with another trip to the dump.” She gave off a nervous laugh, but before Frost could interject Alphys perked back up. “Bread is cut!” She chimed, setting her knife down and looking at her handiwork. She turned to Frost with a beaming smile. “How is it?”

Frost’s expression was a mixture of several different conflicting moods. The girl obviously had _something_ cooking in that noggin of hers–no pun intended–and hadn’t thought through all of the details? Perhaps she couldn’t _find_ all of the parts she needed in that short escapade at the dump. Regardless she seemed to not want to linger on the topic, and the elemental decided to roll with. Leaning over her shoulder, he thoroughly examined each slice. “Very good, dearest.” He complimented. “Though _do_ be sure to maketh thy slices more evenly cut next time. Consistency is _key_.”

Her expression dampened just a bit. She thought they looked fairly even. Then again, Frost was _very_ picky with how these foods looked. What was Frost going to do? Was he going to have her cut another loaf? 

Her questions were soon answered as Frost reached over her, pointing at two different slices. “These two will do just fine.” He told her, looking over her shoulder to her and giving her a reassuring smile. “Come now–we must finish thy project and make thy masterpiece!”

That statement in itself was enough to warrant another beaming smile from the small reptile. With an eager salute, she chimed. “Yes, sir!”

* * *

“Ta-da!”

With a cheerful chirp Alphys presented her sandwich to her instructor, complete with leafy accents to accompany her dish. Even setting up the sandwich had been a task in itself. Everything had to be placed _just right_ –the sandwich, the condiment cups, the parsley– _everything_. It probably took a good five minutes to work on the staging of her dish alone.

Despite all of the hard work wearing her out, seeing the look of satisfaction and pride coming from Frost made all of the effort worth it. She could hardly contain her excitement when Frost began to speak. “Well done, dearest. Thou did a _splendid_ job on thy first sandwich.” The elemental couldn’t help but chuckle quietly at seeing her excitedly bob in place. Though, it was more the sight of her tail tip wiggling around that made it so humorous. Reaching out to the sandwich, now cut in halves to showcase its innards, Frost took the piece closest to him, a wide smile on his face. “Now then, shall we?”

Alphys’ bouncing stilled, her curious eyes widening. “Huh?”

Frost’s chuckles turned into an audible laugh. “We spent all that time slaving over thy sandwich. No sense in letting it go to waste. Let us savor the fruits of thine labor!” He gestured with his free hand towards the other half of the sandwich left on the plate.

Alphys suddenly shied up, but she still managed to force herself to pick up the sandwich. It didn’t fall apart when either her or Frost picked it up. That was a good sign. Though to be fair, the toothpick was probably helping out with most of that. With both of them holding a piece in hand, Frost moved his slice towards hers, almost as if toasting her. “Bon Appétit!”

Alphys raised her sandwich, and with that both monsters took a hearty bite of their meal. The moment her taste buds touched the sandwich, her eyes went wide. This... this was... _delicious_! She didn’t even know sandwiches could _taste_ this good! Then again, it was an easy dish to create. It wasn’t too hard to make a decent sandwich when she was _handed_ most of the ingredients and told only to cut them. The bacon had been the only part of it she’d truly _cooked_ , and with Frost basically holding her hand through the cooking process she was able to make them _just right_ and not have raw or burnt bacon on her sandwich like she would have if she’d been cooking this all herself.

Looking across from her, Alphys could see the pride on Frost’s face. That was good, right? He hadn’t spit it out or made disgusted faces while eating it. In fact, before she knew it, he’d went back in for a second bite. A second bite!

“Thou did a _splendid_ job, dearest.” Frost congratulated, offering his companion a thumbs-up with his free hand.

With her own sense of pride welling up, Alphys gave her mentor a sheepish smile. She did it... She actually did it! She’d made a dish that Frost approved! “Th-thank you!” She stammered between bites, still taking a moment to recover from the flattery of it all. “I-I mean, I _did_ have a pretty good instructor that helped me through it.”

That compliment earned a laugh from the elemental. “Do not assume flattery will maketh thine future lessons easier, dearest.” He teased with a wink. “I have no intention of letting thee take the easy route. Thou art a future chef in the making–I cannot spare one _moment_ of ease if thou art to become one of the greatest down here!”

“Woah, woah, I wouldn’t go _that_ far.” She chuckled alongside of him, the flattery turning her cheek scales a rosy pink. “I-I mean, you saw me today. I’m not exactly what you’d call a noteworthy cook.”

“Bah!” Frost gestured like he was shooing the notion away. “Anyone can cook up a meal... but!” He pointed at her. “Only those with enough drive and passion can becometh _great_.” His hand moved back onto the sandwich. “I believe thou has what it taketh. I’ve seen it before, and I will no doubt see it many times again in the future.”

Now she was _certain_ her cheeks were red. It had been so long since someone had complimented her like that, since someone had told her that they _believed_ in her. It was so... _lovely_. She wanted him to repeat it, but asking him to do that may have been pushing it. Not to mention extremely _awkward_ , too.

“Come now.” Frost gestured with a nod towards her own sandwich. “Finish thy meal. The sooner we do, the sooner we can get home!” The way his face twisted, Alphys could tell he was holding back a yawn. “We need to get enough sleep for work tomorrow.”

With one last excited grin Alphys nodded to Frost, bringing her sandwich close to her mouth. “Hai!” 

Perhaps working at this restaurant wasn’t such a bad thing after all.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s another normal day, or so Alphys believes when she begins work. It doesn’t take long for a few familiar faces to stumble into the restaurant and catch the ex-scientist by surprise.

Another day, another dollar.

Carrying her tub to the one of the recently abandoned booths, Alphys let out a soft sigh. She never realized how _busy_ things got at this restaurant. Frost made it a point to try and clean off the table as soon as the customers finished their meals, but some days there was simply too much traffic to be able to keep at it consistently. Frost would help at the especially busy times, but usually he was only removing main-course dishes, and there were still tons of tables to keep up with regardless of how fast they moved.

This particular table had ordered dessert–cheesecake and red wine. To her relief they’d drank every last drop of wine, which meant she didn’t have to make two trips to clean off the table. When one had to pay for wine by the glass, it made sense that they’d want to savor every last bit. 

She began to place the dishes in her tub. Thankfully today had been easier than some of the days past. People weren’t giving her nearly as much trouble as they had been before. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t being given _any_ crap–no, customers were still giving her trouble here and there–it was just to a lower degree than it had been in days past. 

A small yawn escaped her mouth. She’d been yawning a lot today and she wasn’t quite sure why. She’d gotten enough sleep the previous night, and it wasn’t like she’d gotten up at some weird hour of the night or morning. She hoped that the running around to the tables and drinking plenty of water would keep her blood pumping enough to keep her awake, but the yawns still managed to escape her here and there. Maybe she just needed a cup of coffee? Though she wasn’t sure if she’d be allowed to have one at work. She’d just have to wait until they got home. Perhaps next morning she could grab a cup.

Placing the last dish into her tub, she then pulled the wet rag out. As she mindlessly wiped down the table and seats her eyes would occasionally glance over towards Frost, who was currently bar-tending for a few monsters up at the front of the restaurant. She was still impressed with how much of a show he could put on for customers. Always smiling, always giving them a good time... He really was amazing. He never seemed to miss a beat, even when the customers came through the doors. Though the bell at the top of the door probably helped out with that. Some days she honestly wondered how he managed to do all of it.

As if on cue, the bell gave off its signature chime. More customers, which meant more work, Alphys thought. Taking her mind off of her boss she went back to work, making sure that she got that table finished quickly enough to move onto the next task at hand.

While Alphys hadn’t paid mind to exactly _who_ entered the restaurant, Frost, per the usual, made sure to take a peek at who was walking into his establishment. A cat monster and an alligator monster, Frost noted. They were two new patrons, monsters Frost had yet to see. However, it didn’t take too long looking at them for the feeling of contempt to bubble forth, a disgruntled grumble leaving his mouth. What in the world was with their get-up? The mismatched pastel colors and solid blacks were one thing, followed by their strange choice of clothing (they looked like a pair of teens still half-dressed in pajamas), but topping that off with the thick as could be eye makeup and choice of hair dyes and accessories? They looked like they were trying _way_ too hard to get someone’s attention. Unruly _children_ who shouldn’t have been at such a refined establishment like _this_.

Pretending at first not to notice them, Frost carried about in his usual business, pouring mixed drinks out for the patrons sitting at the bar in front of him. As much as he wished he could shoo them away he knew doing so would be bad for business. Not to mention it would hurt his already-damaged reputation. For now, he’d suck it up and treat them just like any other guest, but the first sign of trouble from these two and they were _out_ of this restaurant. He would have _zero_ tolerance for any _misconduct_ or _rude behavior_ at _his_ establishment.

Several moments had passed and the girls were _still_ standing there, much to his chagrin. A frustrated sigh left the elemental. These girls better not have been _loitering_ at his establishment. He didn’t care how _hot_ it was outside: Loitering was _strictly prohibited_ at his restaurant. If they wanted to escape from the heat, then they should’ve thought about that before going through a place called _Hot_ land.

Deciding to get it over with, Frost tightened up his tie and made his way to the front of the restaurant. As he walked by, he took extra care to note Alphys’ situation, since she’d been close by cleaning off one of the booths. So far, she seemed to be doing fine, relatively speaking. People weren’t giving her trouble, which meant Frost could deal with these strangers without having to watch Alphys like a hawk. Making sure not to stare for too long, he turned back to the two girls. “Excuse me, ladies.” He piped up, taking long, graceful strides towards the two. “Is there something I can help thee with?” He offered, forcing a smile on his face.

There was a moment of silence before either of the girls responded, the two of them looking at the ice elemental with very pensive looks. What in the world? Was it something he said? It didn’t take too long before their confused expression disappeared, followed by eyebrow raises, as if something clicked in their minds.

“Yeah, we were, like...”

“ _Totally_ trying to decide where to sit.”

Oh lord, what had he gotten himself into? Two girls that completed each other’s sentences, talking in this strange lingo, and all while wearing this strange attire? He was in for a treat, he could already tell.

With another sigh Frost straightened up his back. From behind he could hear the jostling of dirty silverware in a tub. Good, Alphys managed to get through cleaning her table without any trouble. “My sincerest apologies, we are doing our best to get all available seats cleaned and ready. We–”

Frost’s explanation was abruptly cut off by one of the girls letting out a loud squeal, one that caused a few patrons to look in their direction. It took nearly every fiber of Frost’s being to hold back his frustration. With a sudden slap on the arm, the cat monster eagerly grabbed the attention of her alligator friend.

“Oh em gee, is _that_ –?!”

Across the room, that one sentence hitting Alphys’ ears was enough to cause Alphys to freeze in place. Oh no... anybody but _them_! When the gasp of the second monster next to her caught her ears, the busgirl immediately turned away.

“Oh em gee, it _is_!”

“ _Alphys?!_ ”

With the both of them chiming in with her name in unison, suddenly energy surged through Alphys’ legs. Hustling past the tables, Alphys made her way into the kitchen as fast as she could, not sparing even a glance back the entire way.

While the two girls were giggling amongst themselves, they hadn’t noticed that Alphys was running away. Frost knew better–he’d already seen this type of behavior before. Alphys knew these girls from _somewhere_ , and for some reason she was avoiding them. What _had_ surprised him next was the girls’ reactions. When he’d been expecting condescending jeers to be the next thing to come out of them, what actually followed was a sequence of squeals and giggles.

“Omigawd, I can’t believe it! It’s actually her!”

“Omigawd, It’s practically been, like, _forever_!”

The feline swiveled around to Frost, a beaming expression on her face. “We’d like to be sat at whatever table she’s waiting on!”

The reptilian companion followed suit. “We _so_ want to have Alphys as our waitress!”

“This is gonna be so _cool_!” They chimed in unison.

These girls certainly had an _interesting_ way of talking, Frost thought. From what he could tell, they didn’t seem like they carried any spite towards Alphys. The cogs began slowly turning in his head to figure out what they were asking for. When it finally clicked, the elemental shook his head. “I’m quite sorry, ladies. I’m afraid that Miss Alphys does not holdeth a waitress position at this establishment.”

In an instant, both girls’ expressions dropped. “What?!” The look in their eyes was that of complete heartbreak.

“Yes. Miss Alphys is mine busgirl. She keeps this establishment in pristine condition at all times.” He did his best to force a smile. “I am the only one who serves here.”

Again there was hesitance, and the girls were giving him blank stares again for a few short moments before the lightbulb flashed over top of their heads. “Ohhhh.” The disappointment from the girls showed on their faces, if only for a brief moment. Seconds later they were already back to their peppy demeanor. “So, like, if she can’t wait on us...”

“Is there any way that she can, like, chill with us for a while?”

What? _Chill_? What in the world was with these girls and their _strange_ way of talking?

“Yeah, please dude! We haven’t seen her in, like, forever!”

“It would be super _rad_ if you could do that for us!”

Frost was still attempting to process what they were saying. Dude? Rad? Chill? Were these girls making up words as they went along and throwing in others at complete random? Whatever the case, they were looking at him expecting an answer. The best he could do was play along with it. “Doth thou knoweth mine busgirl?”

Now it was the girls’ turn to mirror back his confused look, just like they had several times before. Then finally the girls spoke up. 

“What are you saying, dude?”

“Sorry, man, we didn’t understand that one.”

“Alphys.” Frost tried his best to hide the look of irritation that was welling up inside of him. “Doth thou knoweth her?”

Again, his comments earned him nothing but blank stares. Then, one of them leaned in. “Dude, you can chill with the act, you know.” She laughed.

“You don’t have to act all hoity-toity with us. We’re cool peeps!”

“We're not gonna grill ya for not playing waiter every moment of the day!”

These girls were talking gibberish. There was no going around it. He supposed he’d have to dumb it down if they were ever to understand each other. With a sigh he lowered his shoulders. “Thou.” he pointed to the two girls. “Alphys.” He pointed to the kitchen where the lizard had run off to. “Friends?” He then waved his index finger between them and the kitchen.

Frost could practically see the exclamation point appear above their heads. “ _Ohhh!_ ” They chimed in unison.

“Yeah! We’re _totally_ friends with Alphys!”

“Yeah! She used to be our neighbor!”

Well, at least _now_ he could understand them a little better. “Neighbors?”

“Yeah! She was practically like a big sister to us!”

“Yeah, I mean, if your big sister took you out on trips to the dump!”

The dump, huh? Seemed Alphys had already been acquainted with the dump long before he’d ever come to meet her. Odd that she never mentioned it before her escapade.

“She would show us where to find all of the coolest stuff there!”

“Though she was usually off collecting these weird cartoons.”

Cartoons? Then it clicked–that “anime” stuff that Alphys always seemed to enjoy. She didn’t share her interest in anime very publicly. Perhaps these girls really _did_ know Alphys, just as they had claimed. Though that didldn’t explain why Alphys was so quick to get away from them.

“So then, can she hang with us?” The cat girl chimed.

“We’d love to get a chance to chat with her!” The alligator girl followed suit.

Ah, so it seemed they were simply wishing to _visit_ with Alphys? Is that what it meant to “hang” with someone? He was going to go with the flow and hope that he was right on that one. “I will see if she is available.” Was all he offered. Any more and they might get confused and start asking him questions again, and good _lord_ he didn’t want to have to speak with them any longer than he had to. Pointing to the nearby booth, he took a step back. “Please, seat thyselves here. I shall be back soon.”

“Right on!” The one girl cheered, making her way to the booth.

“Thanks, dude!” The other one called after.

Still straining to hold onto that smile, the moment their bottoms touched the booth Frost was out of their way and making a beeline for the kitchen. Not only was he ready to be out of these girls’ hair, but he had to make sure that Alphys was okay too. The _last_ thing she needed was more harassment, and like _hell_ if he was going to forcibly push her out to greet them if she didn’t want to be near them.

Slipping into the kitchen, Frost looked around. “Alphys?” He called out. Where did that little lizard of his go? The kitchen wasn’t huge so she couldn’t have been too far off. She wasn’t hiding in the fridge, was she? The thought was dismissed as soon as it came. Who would do something so foolish? Perhaps she was behind one of the counters?

“Alphys!” He called once more, stepping in a bit further into the kitchen. It wasn’t until the door shut behind him that he felt a presence behind him. Turning back, he could see Alphys hiding behind where the door was. He was lucky he hadn’t hit her with it on the way in!

“Alphys, dearest?” Frost stepped closer to her. “Is everything alright?”

Leaning against the wall, Alphys claws tightly gripped each other, her eyes slammed shut. Her arms were visibly shaking, though Frost couldn’t tell if it was out of fear or if she was clenching her fists that tightly. “Dearest,” He spoke calmly. He took the spot beside his busgirl, leaning against the wall just as she had. “Dost thou knoweth these ladies?”

There was hesitance from Alphys as she continued to shake. Slowly she nodded, but her eyes remained shut. “Th... Their names are... Bratty and Catty.” She muttered timidly. “They... they lived next door to me... back when I lived with my parents.”

So it was true, these girls really _were_ Alphys’ neighbors, just as they claimed. So then how much else was true? Were they really childhood friends?

“Is that so?” Frost pretended not to know about what the girls told him. “They didn’t... harass thee in the past, did they?”

“N-no, they didn’t.” Alphys immediately quelled his concerns. “Th-they were actually really close friends of mine.” Her claws slowly separated, palms sliding across her arms until they were wrapping around herself for comfort. “Back then, they were my only friends... the only ones who would hang out with me.”

That comment earned an eyebrow raise. Seemed those girls were telling the _entirety_ of the truth. But if that was the case...

“Then why did thou run from them?” Frost inquired, looking to her with concern. “Did thou have a disagreement with them?”

“No. It’s not what you think.” Her eyes finally opened, but it was clear by their dampness that they wouldn’t stay like that for long. “When I went to work for Gaster, my life changed. I... I...” She gulped. “Well, you know what happened there.” She took a deep breath, doing her best to fight back tears. “Shortly after I got hired there I started falling out of contact with _everyone_ … Including them.” She lifted her glasses, wiping away at her eyes before any tears could escape. “God, it’s been _years_ since I’ve spoken to either one of them.” She attempted once again to take a deep breath, but this time it was much shakier than before. “And now, th-thanks to... e-everything that’s happened... o-on top of never talking to them... I-I’m afraid... that... that...”

“That they will think the same things of thee that everyone else does?” Frost finished for her. Everything was finally starting to click. Even before this whole ordeal had gone down, Frost knew that Alphys was rather introverted. To be perfectly honest, he didn’t think she’d _had_ any friends. Though to be fair, he didn’t really know much about her personal life at that point in time–and honestly still didn’t today. With so few friends at her side, it went without saying that she treasured them dearly, but that also meant that those same few friends could shatter her heart in an instant if they so pleased.

A weak nod came from the shorter monster, followed by a sniffle. “It’s hard enough to hear it from everyone else... I don’t want _them_ to make fun of me, too...” Her lips began to quiver. “B... but...! I...!” She began to lose control over her emotions, tears now rolling down her face. “I miss them so much! I-I want to say hi and catch up with them, b-b-but...! I-if they start mo-mocking me, I-I don’t know what I’ll do!” A loud, snotty inhale came from the busgirl. “What if they _hate_ me?!”

“Now, now, dearest...” Reaching into his pocket, Frost pulled out a handkerchief, raising it up to the lizard’s face and lightly dabbing at her cheeks. “Don’t be so quick to leap to conclusions.” As he patted her cheeks his hand slowly gravitated upwards towards her eyes, being mindful not to bump her glasses in any way. “Those girls did not seem like they wished any harm upon thee.”

There was some hesitance before Alphys’ eyes fluttered open, side-eyeing Frost. “Wh... what...?”

“When I told them that thou worketh as a busgirl and not a waitress they seemed heartbroken.” He told her. “They told me that thou was considered to be an older sibling to them.” His hand switched sides, working to dry what tears remained. “They seemed insistent on wanting to speaketh to thee.”

Alphys’ eyes widened even more as the new information was revealed to her. “They... said that...?”

Frost gave her a nod. “I wasn’t sure what thy feelings for them were, so I told them I would checketh on thy progress with the restaurant.” He then moved to wipe away the snot that had started to drip down her nose, earning a bit of a flinch from the lizard. “If thou wishes to speaketh to them, I have no qualms with it. Thy work can wait.”

As the handkerchief moved away he could see her face light up. “Y-you mean it?!”

Frost gave her another nod. “Though,” He gave a light chuckle. “Thou might want to wait until thine eyes are no longer red.” He gave a wink, to which Alphys shied away behind her hands. “Thou doest not want thy friends to know that thou hath been crying, would thee?”

Alphys meekly lowered her hands, a goofy grin on her face. “I suppose you’re right.” She muttered with a nervous laugh.

“Oh, and one more thing.” The elemental’s expression fell. “Do be sure to keepeth thy friends in check. They have already startled some of mine customers. I would appreciate it if they could calmeth down as to not further upset mine customer base.”

Alphys laughed at the comment. Typical Bratty and Catty. “Yeah, sorry about that. They were easily excitable back when we used to hang out.” She commented with a giggle. “Sounds like that part of them hasn’t changed.” With one more laugh, her expression faltered.

With a reassuring pat on the shoulder, Frost gave Alphys a smile. “Thou will be fine.” He spoke softly. He placed his free hand beneath her chin, raising it to look him in the eye. “If it will make thee feel better, will keep an eye on thee while thou art with them. If things art not going well thou can signal me and I shall pull thee out. Okay?”

Alphys could feel her cheeks warming up. Oh lord, he could probably feel the heat just _resonating_ off of her, she panicked, eyes averting as the thought crossed her mind. “O-of course.” She stammered, her mind going foggy as she scrambled to think of something else to say. “Th-thank you.”

Frost finally released his lizard friend, Alphys giving an internal sigh of relief as he backed off. Thank _God_. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take. “Now then, wash thyself up, and take as much time as thou needeth. Once thou art ready thou may go seat thyself with thy friends.” He told her. “They are seated at booth three.”

"Yessir!” Alphys got out before Frost slid his way back out into the restaurant. With a deep breath Alphys made her way over to the sink. Good lord, not only were her eyes red, but her _cheeks_ were red, too. It would take a good while before she’d be able to go out and greet her friends.

Finally making her way out into the restaurant, Alphys took a deep breath. Five minutes was enough to recuperate, right? She hoped. Frost was giving her this time off to catch up with her childhood friends, and she did _not_ want to take advantage of it by having it be needlessly drawn out by her inability to keep herself together.

Putting one foot in front of the other Alphys began to make her way to where Bratty and Catty were seated. Their apparel had changed since she’d last seen them, the duo now sporting pastel goth clothing. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised. Since the King’s new declaration, many monsters had changed their looks to be a bit more on the edgy side. Some changed physical appearance while others did so by changing their clothes. Seemed the mentality was that the more intimidating they looked, the less likely it was that they’d be messed with. Alphys wondered how long that mentality would really work for. When _everybody_ begins to do the same thing for the same reason, it starts to lose the power and meaning that it once had to it. Only time would tell.

As she drew closer she could see that Bratty and Catty had already been served drinks. In fact, not only were _their_ drinks there, but there was a third drink—a glass of water—set out, too. Had they ordered water to go with their drinks or had Frost put the extra drink out in anticipation of Alphys arriving at the table? She wouldn’t have been surprised if he had. Frost was such a thoughtful monster. A claw unconsciously glided over her chest, brushing against the rigid gem that laid beneath her uniform. It seemed no matter what situation she was in, he was always looking out for her in some way or another.

When Alphys was mere feet away from the table, the two girls at the table saw her and instantly perked up. Alphys had almost drawn back from the near-instantaneous reactions.

“Ohmigawd, Alphys!” Bratty and Catty cheered in unison, their faces beaming when Alphys approached their table.

“H-hey, guys.” She stammered, shoulders raising with her anxiety levels.

The girl’s eagerness suddenly dimmed just enough for Alphys to take notice. Oh lord, what had she done?!

“Man girl, you look _exhausted_!” Catty blurted out.

Alphys had to admit, that was _not_ what she was expecting them to say. Seemed to come completely out of left-field. Did she really look _that_ exhausted? Sure, she’d been working long shifts every day of the week, but... Well, come to think of it, she _was_ actually getting a bit tired from the constant work. The only breaks they seemed to get were meal breaks and sleep. Not to mention, the constant harassment was putting a huge mental strain on her as well. She’d never really thought that the exhaustion was showing outwardly. Frost didn’t seem to notice, or at least never said anything to her about it, so she assumed it had been a well-kept secret of hers. Apparently not.

“Catty!” Bratty looked about ready to slap her friend at the sudden rude comment about Alphys’ appearance.

“What?” Catty was completely oblivious as she threw her arms up in a shrug. “I’m just being honest!”

Bratty gave a roll of the eyes, and while Alphys was still unsure about their stances on her it was nice to see that both of the girls hadn’t changed much. They may have been a bit different from most monsters, but their off-beat personalities were exactly what Alphys loved about them.

“C’mon, girl!” Before Alphys had any more time to worry about their opinions Bratty began beckoning Alphys to sit with them in the booth. “Don’t just stand there!”

“Come sit with us!” Scooting to the side, Catty pat the spot next to her.

Alphys’ eyes lit up when they invited her in. This seemed too good to be true. Bratty and Catty weren’t here to ridicule her! With a newfound glimmer of hope, Alphys scooted in on the bench. “Sorry if my clothes are a little dirty.” She apologized. “It’s not easy to keep clean when your job is to clean up messes.”

“Pshhht!” Bratty waved her hand at Alphys. “Don’t worry about it, girl!”

“We’re just happy to see you again!” Catty meowed. “It’s been _ages_!”

Alphys gave off a nervous laugh. “Y-yeah... it has.” She leaned into the table, doing her best to make herself comfortable despite the situation she was in. “So... What exactly brought you guys to come here?”

“We had a little bit of extra cash this month.” Catty explained, her tail wiggling a bit excitedly, the tip brushing up against Alphys’ own tail by accident.

“So we decided that we’d use it to live a little bit.” Bratty gave a toothy grin, resting her chin on her hands.

"We decided we’d go to one of those super fancy restaurants for once!”

“But _never_ did we think we’d be seeing _you_ here!”

“Well, maybe as a _patron_ , but...”

“Not as an _employee_!”

Alphys gave a long sigh to that comment. “Yeah, well... When people spread shitty rumors about you, it tends to hurt your chances at getting good job interviews.”

With that, both girls gave each other a look of unease. It wasn’t a moment later that they were looking back at Alphys. “So like, what gives with that article anyway?”

Dammit! How _dumb_ was she?! She should’ve _never_ brought it up! She instinctively winced, preparing herself mentally for what was about to come.

“Why was that asshat you worked for saying stupid things like that in the paper?” Catty grunted, her eyes narrowing.

Wait... _what?_

“Yeah, what gives?!” Bratty followed suit. “Like, the dude’s got a stick shoved up his ass or something?”

“You...” Alphys’ expression was a strange mix of stressed and confused. “You...”

“We _do_ read the paper from time to time, girl!” Bratty teased, nudging her yellow-scaled pal teasingly.

“We heard about it on the net.” Catty interjected, completely ruining Bratty’s comment, and, per the usual, the girls gave a long, silent stare before laughing to each other, amused by what had just happened.

Undernet... So it _had_ reached the web. That’s just what she was afraid of. “So, then...” Alphys gulped. She _really_ didn’t know if she wanted the answer to this, but... goddammit, she _had_ to know! “D... Do you guys...” She shrunk in her seat, the beads of sweat on her brow starting to become apparent. “Actually believe that stuff?”

This time, both girls gave a dismissive “Pffft!” to her comment. “As if!”

Alphys could feel her heart skip a beat, her eyes widening. She couldn’t even get a word out before the girls started going at it again.

“Girl, we’ve known you since we were in diapers! If there’s one thing we know about you, it’s that you’re not some kind of stripper who sells her body for money!”

“All that stuff they were saying you were doing sounded _way_ out of character for you, girl. We _knew_ it couldn’t be true.”

Alphys could feel her eyes watering. Even after learning about the rumors that were spread... They still put their faith in her instead of some news report!

Before she could say anything, Catty had pulled her into a big side-hug. “Guuurl, don’t start with the waterworks, now!” She teased.

“Don’t you worry about a _thing,_ Al!” Bratty added in. “We’ve got your back! You can always count on us!”

“You guys...!” Alphys couldn’t help the growing smile that was stretching across her face. Words couldn’t even _begin_ to describe the overflowing feelings she was filled with. “Y-y-y...” With a choked laugh, she gave them a beaming smile. “You two are the best!”

Bratty gave a giggle. “Of course we are!”

“Alright, girl, drink some of your water before you go bawling your head off on us!” Catty told Alphys, nudging the drink towards her friend.

“Don’t you go pushing that glass off the table, Catty!” Bratty teased her companion with a snicker.

“Hey!” The feline monster gave a pout. “I’d do no such thing!” she hissed teasingly. It was clear she was trying to come up with some witty comment to throw back at her scaly friend, but it seemed she couldn’t come up with anything clever in time. Bratty then proceeded to stick her tongue out at Catty, earning a soft chuckle from Alphys as she sipped on the glass offered to her.

“So,” Alphys started back up, setting the drink back down. Oddly enough, the drink _did_ seem to help calm her down a bit. “How have things been with you guys?” She inquired, hoping to lighten up the subject after nearly breaking out into tears again in front of her childhood friends.

Her question was met with exasperated expressions from the two girls. “Oh, you know...” Catty murmured. “Livin’ the dream.”

“We run a thrift store now.” Bratty hummed, lips curling into a frown. “We find rare and valuable stuff and sell it to other monsters for gold.”

“Oh, that sounds interesting.” Alphys tried her best to encourage the girls, though she could read right through their expressions. This thrift job? They didn’t seem to like it all that much.

“It would be better if we could actually make some good money off of it.” Catty grumbled. “I mean, we don’t really even have a shop.”

At that, Alphys pulled back in confusion. “No shop? Then how do you guys sell your merchandise?”

“I guess you could say we’re travelling merchants?” Bratty explained, though the upward infliction at the end gave Alphys reason to doubt the things they were saying. “We set up shop different places. We’re still trying to find a good place to sell stuff.”

“There’s just not enough people going by anywhere.” Catty whined. “It’s hard to get sales when people don’t even _see_ the stuff you’re selling.” Suddenly Catty slammed her paws on the table, earning a few startled looks from the tables nearby. “We spent, like, _hours_ diggin' through the dump to find this stuff! It would be nice if _someone_ acknowledged us, at least!”

“Catty!” Alphys jumped up, pulling her friend back down. “P-please don’t do stuff like that. You’re frightening the other patrons. I don’t want you guys to get kicked out of here!”

“Yeah, Catty.” Bratty agreed. “Besides, not like complaining's gonna get us any more business.”

Catty slumped back in her seat, giving a childish pout as she took her drink in hand. “I know...” She whined before taking a sip.

“So… you guys get your wares from the dump?” Alphys asked.

“Yeah.” Bratty answered, though after her lackluster response she gave a quick, beaming smile. “We have you to thank for that, girl!”

“Yeeh!” Catty added, cheeks full of the pink lemonade she was drinking. “Yur da one dat showed ush how tuh find da gud shtuff!”

“We wouldn’t be able to run this business if it wasn’t for you, girl!”

Though Alphys was grateful and admittedly a little proud of the compliment, her expression didn’t reflect it. Instead, all that showed was concern. “Thanks, but... if that’s the case, that must make it even harder for you guys to sell stuff.”

“We manage to get by.” Catty reassured her friend, now with the drink finally swallowed. “We make enough to pay for the basics: Food, water, rent.”

“We just so happened to have a _super_ rare find this month,” Bratty went on to explain. “We ended up with, like, a bunch of money to finally treat ourselves to something nice for once!”

“That’s why we thought we’d spend it here!” Catty grinned. “We’ve heard a lot of talk from the hoity-toity peeps about how _sweet_ this restaurant is, so we thought we’d give it a try!”

Despite their best efforts, Alphys mood wasn’t lifted at all. These two were barely scraping by selling whatever junk they could find at the dump? That must’ve been such a hard life to live with day after day. Seems she wasn’t the only one out there to have it rough. Wouldn’t it have been nice if Frost could’ve hired them too, save them the way he saved her, but she knew that wasn’t a realistic option. Alphys was basically working for free, refusing her paycheck to make up for the food, housing, and clean water she was getting living with Frost. He didn’t really have to budget for her as an employee. Not to mention since he didn’t have any other workers to begin with, there was a good chance that he couldn’t _afford_ to hire new employees. Frost’s gross income was something she didn’t have access to, so of course she wouldn’t know if he made enough money to hire new employees. If only there was a way to figure out how much money he made per patron. They could tally checks and get a rough estimate that way, but that was a rather rough estimate, and one that–

Wait a minute.

Eyes went wide, and within seconds everything faded away. Finding a way to calculate average gain per customer... calculate day-by-day profits... factor in what net profit they get... use that to figure out if they could hire another body... All they needed to do was figure out how many people entered on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis–!

“Oh jeez, she’s makin' that face again.” Bratty cut off Alphys’ brainstorming, bringing the busgirl back to reality.

“Guuurl, what are you cookin’ in that noggin of yours?” Catty teasingly nudged her lizard friend.

“S-sorry!” Alphys stammered, cheeks turning a light pink. “Just thinking about some ideas for a personal project.”

Before either girl could inquire about what she’d meant, the trio was greeted by none other than the manager himself. “How art things going? I certainly hope thou art enjoying thyselves!”

Instantly, the two girls perked up. “Totally!” They chimed in unison.

Alphys knew what Frost was up to, despite the typical show he was putting on. It wasn’t just to check up and see if they were ready to order: He was making sure Alphys was still comfortable being seated with the girls. She hadn’t given him any kind of distress signal, but she was certain he was probably still worrying about her. “We are.” Alphys reassured, giving a gentle smile.

Catching onto the signal, Frost gave the girls a larger smile with a light bow. “Splendid to hear. Hast thou decided on what thou wouldst liketh to dine on?”

The two girls gave confused looks back to Frost. Noting their confusion and being close enough to whisper to Catty, Alphys leaned over. “He asked if you’re ready to order.”

Catty gave a silent gasp, the aha moment finally clicking. “Sorry, bruh, we were too busy catching up, we’re gonna need another sec!”

Catching on to what was happening, Bratty joined in. “Yeah, sorry dude! We were getting the deets on Al’s new life and stuff.”

Once again it was Frost turn to give a confused look. Alphys couldn’t help but laugh at the situation, amused by the disconnect between their dialects. “They’re gonna need a few more minutes.” 

“Ah.” Frost gave a small nod in response. “Very well. I shall return in a few, ladies!” 

With that, Frost was off to the next table, carrying about his job per usual. Seeing his work ethic, Alphys decided she couldn’t waste any more time. “I should get heading back to work.” Alphys told the girls, making her way out of the booth. 

“Aww, so soon!?” Catty pouted.

“Wait!” Bratty reached out. “Before ya go, give us your new cell number!”

Alphys winced. “Sorry guys,” she frowned. “I don’t have a cellphone anymore. It got ruined and I haven’t been able to get a replacement for it.” She explained, claws fidgeting anxiously.

“Man, that sucks!” Bratty pouted.

“Well then, maybe we’ll catch you around Hotland sometime!” Catty attempted to look on the positive side of things. “Small place down here, I’m sure we’ll see each other again at least _some_ time!”

Alphys gave the girls a smile. “Y-you’re right!” A new light filled her eyes. “I’m sure we’ll catch each other again some time. Hopefully then I’ll have more free time to talk.” She joked. Standing back up, she gave her friends one last wave. “Thanks for everything, guys!”

The two girls eagerly waved back at their friend. “Catch ya later, Al!”

With a newfound warmth filling up her soul, Alphys made her way back to the kitchen, ready to get back to work. Perhaps things were not as bad as she initially made them out to be. She’d reconnected with ones she’d thought were lost forever. It seemed the saying really _was_ true: Every cloud has a silver lining.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the day-to-day work helps to bring money into the home, the constant twelve-hour days with no days off in between are starting to take its toll on Alphys...

“Home sweet home!”

With an exhausted yet relieved sigh Alphys made her way into the house, moving ahead of Frost as he held the door open for her. Today had been another especially hard day at the restaurant both physically and mentally, and the small lizard was drained from it all.

“Thou did a _splendid_ job at the restaurant today, dearest.”

“Hghnnnnn...” Once close enough, Alphys threw herself onto the couch. She let out a tired sigh, putting her head down to rest. “Sorry, I’m going to have to go to bed.” She muttered, though she didn’t move an inch. She didn’t want to admit it aloud, but if she spent any more time awake tonight, she was going to be paying the price tomorrow for sure.

“Dearest,” Noting her exhaustion, Frost put a hand on Alphys’ shoulder. “Thou should taketh a day off.”

“What?” Alphys jolted up, her eyes darting to Frost as her body pulled back. She seemed _insulted_ by those words.

“Thou art looking _exhausted_ , dearest.” Frost told her, his comments almost _mirroring_ Bratty and Catty’s from the other day. “I think thou should taketh a day off to relax.”

Alphys’ tail twitched, both in annoyance and anxiety. Did Frost think she wasn’t capable of handling the work at the restaurant? Was that why he was making these suggestions? Trying to brush off the comment Alphys took Frost’s wrist in her hand, gently pulling his hand off of her shoulder. “I’m fine, Frost. I just didn’t sleep that well last night is all.” She lied, doing her best to pull off a convincing smile. “That’s all. Once I go to bed, I’ll be bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready for tomorrow!” She reassured him. Attempting to leave the conversation at that, Alphys got up from the couch, ready to run back up to her bedroom. Not even a step away from the furniture and she’d been stopped again by Frost, who this time had grabbed her by the wrist.

“Dearest, _please_.” Frost piped up, putting emphasis on his words in the hope that his concern would shine through. “Thou ought to rest thyself.” His eyes narrowed. “Thou art going to work thyself to an early grave.”

_Again_ with the exhaustion comment. She was _fine._ She could handle this! She could deal with anything that Frost could. “Stop worrying so much, Frost. I’ll be fine.” She said again, though her tone was a bit sharper this time around. “Once I go to bed, I’ll be rested up and ready for tomorrow.” 

After her second protest Frost gave an irritated yet defeated sigh. Through everything that she’d been through, there was _one_ thing that hadn’t changed about her: Her _stubborn_ personality. When that girl got a goal in mind, not even the forces of heaven and earth could stop her from accomplishing it. How nice it would be to lock her up in her room so she’d be _forced_ to take a break, but knowing her she’d somehow find a way to turn the sheets into a rope and climb out the window to escape just to get back to the restaurant. While it may have been her greatest strength, there were times when that stubbornness was also her greatest flaw.

With his grip still on her wrists, Frost did his best to encourage her to come towards him without tugging harshly at her wrists. “If thou will not rest, then let me let me helpeth thee to relax.”

“Relax?” Alphys raised an eyebrow at the offer. What in the world was he planning?

“Yes, relax.” Frost repeated, and though he didn’t let go his grip relaxed, no longer pulling Alphys’ arm. “What say thee?”

“U-uh,” She could feel the sweat forming in her palms. “R-really Frost, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“ _Alphys_.”

Like a bullet to the chest, the one word accompanied by the piercing stare he gave off shot right through her. Was he really that concerned? She’d be fine, she could take on whatever people threw at her. Yet, despite how much she tried to make it known, Frost simply _wouldn’t_ let up. If it helped to get him off her case, she supposed she should roll along with whatever Frost had planned for her. Knowing him it was probably something relating to food. Dessert, perhaps? 

With a sigh she finally gave in. “Okay.” With her free hand she pointed her index finger at him. “But just this once, okay?”

Releasing her wrist, Frost gave her a gentle smile. Despite the argument that had transpired, the ice elemental could see just the _faintest_ hint of his old friend returning back to him. It had felt like an _eternity_ since he’d last seen her. That in itself was a victory for Frost. “I thank thee.” He gestured towards the living room couch. “Just layeth on thy stomach and I shall take care of the rest.”

Alphys’ cheeks lit up, the heat _rushing_ to her face. Lay down on the couch? Stomach down? To relax!? “ _Wh-what?!”_

“Lay down on thy stomach on the couch.” Frost repeated, though as the words left his mouth a second time, it dawned on him why Alphys had reacted in such a strange way. He quickly threw his hands up, his own cheeks turning a bright chardonnay. “I-I do not plan to do anything strange t-to thee! I swear it on mine life!”

“Y-you’d better not!” Alphys screeched, hiding away as though his words had stripped her naked. 

“I won’t! I swear!”

There was hesitance, but eventually Alphys agreed, slowly lowering herself down onto the couch. Once she was situated Frost made his way over beside her. Alphys’ heart began to _race_ with each step closer. Oh lord, what was he doing?! Was he going to be putting himself somewhere he shouldn’t be? The logical part of her would’ve instantly shut that thought down. He’d never been the type to do weird shit like this before, so why would he suddenly do it now? Yet her overactive imagination began to make her head spin with the possibilities of what could _possibly_ be coming up next. 

Once he was beside the couch, Frost put one knee down beside her. He hunched over, placing both hands near the base of her neck. The sudden physical contact made the reptile practically leap out of her scales.

“Relax, dearest.” Frost spoke softly, not moving a muscle in his hands. “I promise thee that I am not doing anything strange.” He cocked his head to the side, attempting to read the expression on her face. “Thou must trust me.”

Trust him... Trust him... That was right. Frost hadn’t done anything that would betray her trust before so why would he suddenly do it now? She had to keep reminding herself that Frost had always been the kind to help her out in need. This was no exception. She chanted it in her mind over and over, doing her best to relax despite his hands touching her in a way they hadn’t before.

Feeling her _attempt_ to relax, Frost decided to start working his magic. Putting his weight into it, he let the heels of his hands begin to press into her back. The action earned an almost immediate yelp from Alphys.

“ _Relax_.” 

As he continued to dig, Alphys couldn’t hold back the strange noises coming out of her. It... was a massage. She mentally slapped herself. Of _course_ it was. Why did she think it was going to be anything else? Curse her overactive imagination getting her heart worked up for something as trivial as _this_. She couldn’t help herself from continually making noises each time he dug into her muscles. Her body started to ease up a bit more at the revelation. It felt _wonderful_ , but it was a rough kind of sensation that she wasn’t used to, not allowing her to fully give in yet.

“This isn’t too hard for thee, is it?” Frost asked when the noises failed to die down. Though he tried to play it cool he couldn’t deny that the noises were getting him a bit flustered, too.

“Y-you’re fine...!” Alphys grunted, doing her best to hold the next yelps in. “S-sorry, I-I’m just... n-not used to this...!”

Trying to distract himself from her uncomfortably erotic moans, he latched onto her last comment and rolled with it. “Has thou never received a massage before?”

“W-well not... really no...” Alphys answered through her gritted teeth. “The only similar... thing I’ve had was back... when I still lived with... my parents...”

“Thy parents?”

“M-My mother’s... an acupuncturist... so while I didn’t get... a massage, I would... still get acupuncture treatments... from time to time...”

“Was there any particular reason? Was thou stressed back in those days?”

“N-no... well, not to the... extent that I was... back when I was... working in the lab... I mean, she would give me acupuncture... treatments when I was... getting stressed, but most of the time... they were done to help with my magic...”

“Thy magic?”

There was a bit of hesitance, easily disguised by the stifled grunt from the massage. She was becoming a bit more used to the sensation and was no longer making wails, but it still was earning light noises here and there. “I-I...” Despite her position beneath him she did what she could to look away from him. “I don’t have very good control of my magic... I never have...” Her voice was more hushed than it was before. “My mother would give me acupuncture treatments... in the hopes that it would help to unblock my chi... to let the magic flow through my body easier... so that I could use magic more freely like everyone else...” She swallowed hard, closing her eyes. “It never worked.”

Frost’s shoulders fell, something Alphys could feel as his next pushes into her back were met with less force. “I’m sorry to hear about that.”

“It’s fine. I’ve learned to hold my own despite not having that access...” She did her best to brush it off. “Don’t worry about me and my magical abilities. I know that when the time comes, I’ll be able to use them.” Those were the words her parents had told her time and again... and despite her handicap, those words had proven themselves to be true when the time came...

At least, _one_ of those powers did.

“Very well. I shall not press the subject any further.” With that, Frost returned to applying the stronger pressure to Alphys, doing his best not to let his hesitance show. 

From then on the conversation slowed down, and eventually stopped. Alphys finally managed to fully adjust to the massage, her once pained moans fading alongside of her words. The silence that remained between them was different than most. It was peaceful, calming even. A little bit of incense in the room would’ve made the atmosphere _perfect_ , Frost thought.

After a few more minutes of massaging Frost stopped, leaning over to check on his reptilian companion. His eyes widened–she’d fallen asleep! That was a first. Granted, he hadn’t given anyone a massage in a _very_ long time, and gave very few when he did, but it was still unexpected. A warm grin stretched across his jagged lips as he looked down at her resting face. She looked so peaceful... he’d never seen her look so... calm.

Minding his movements, Frost gingerly lifted Alphys into his arms. In the back of his mind, he worried about how Alphys would cope with everything in the coming days. She was exhausted both physically and mentally, yet she refused to take a break from it all.

Poor girl.

What did she do to deserve a fate as cruel as hers? To be damned with a title she never did anything to earn, and being tossed aside like a piece of trash? Yet, the more his mind continued to dwell on the thought, the more it dawned on him: This was the fate of those born as monsters. Damned for a lifetime simply for being a monster. Her story was only going to be the beginning of the tragic stories that would arise, and with the king’s new decree many more troubled stories would begin to surface.

He was no longer the only one with a cross to bear.

* * *

Alphys wasn’t sure how Frost managed to work like this every day of his _life_. Six straight weeks of working, all twelve-hour days, every single day of the week. It was _torture_. Even now at the end of the day, Frost was still keeping his chipper demeanor. _She_ , on the other hand, was about at the end of her rope.

Alphys had already gone out to clean off the last table of the day, but good _god_ if every second out there didn’t feel like _absolute hell_. She’d worked crazy hours like this back in the lab, but at least for those she had the luxury of sitting at a desk compiling research and documenting results. This job kept her constantly on her feet, _constantly_ on-the-go. 

Never in her _life_ had she been required to do so much physical work from day to day with barely anything of a break in between. Saturdays were always the worst, with everyone else off of work and flooding into the establishment, and unlucky for her today happened to be another Saturday. Trying to walk from table to table felt like she was dragging _lead bricks_ where her legs were supposed to be.

Using every bit of strength she had, Alphys began lifting the dirty dishes into her tub. A little voice in the back of her head _pleaded_ for her to ask Frost for a break, but no matter how much it _begged_ Alphys continued to ignore it. She couldn’t ask for a break, not when Frost was working so _hard_. That would only add more work-load to his plate, and she would _not_ allow herself to do that to him! If she asked for help she would be admitting defeat. She would only be proving all of the naysayers _right_.

She couldn’t go down. not like this.

As she lifted one of the plates up, a sudden wave hit her. She could _feel_ the blood _drain_ from her face. The plate crashed into her tub, thankfully not shattering, but definitely sounding like it could have. She gripped the side of the table, her breathing becoming shallow. No... She had to stay awake. Frost did this thing all of the time. If she started working any less than she was, that would only put more burden on Frost. He would have to work extra hard to make up for the help he was losing.

“Alphys?” She could just barely hear Frost emerge from the kitchen behind her, his voice starting to sound muffled. “I heard... ...... ...shing, is ever...... ..ay?”

Alphys wasn’t sure what Frost had said, but knowing him, he was very likely checking up on her. “I’m fine.” She did her best to call back, though her rapidly deteriorating state made it come out as a very lackluster response.

“Alphys...!” She gave a shallow gasp as a hand rested on her shoulder. She hadn’t even _heard_ him walk up next to her. “Thy fa.. .. ...ning pa..” Alphys looked up, and though the world around her was beginning to look fuzzy she could still make out a distressed look coming from him. “.... ..eedeth to re..!”

No... This wasn’t good. She couldn’t have Frost worrying about her like this. This was nothing. She could handle this. “I’m fine...!” She panted, gripping her tub. “I’m... almost done...”

“A...ys!” She felt herself get pulled back by the ice elemental, but strangely enough, she’d never felt him grab her wrist. “Thou ne..... ..st!”

Alphys turned her head, but the moment her eyes met Frost, the world around her began to twist and turn, spinning around her in an almost dizzying way. 

“Frost...” 

An encumbering sensation began to overtake the small reptile. Her arms became heavy, her tail limp, and her legs weak. Her eyelids began to fall, and her body began to sway.

“... I’m...” 

Everything began fading from sight. A blackness began to swirl around the room, consuming everything, crawling about the walls and tables, and quickly slithering up Frost’s body.

_“Alphys!!”_

**_CRASH!_ **

* * *

Eyes slowly fluttered open, the busy mind finally coming to her senses. She could feel the soft cotton of the bedsheets encasing her. Above her, a bright, blinding light greeted her as she awoke, causing a painful throbbing in the side of her head. It took her a moment before she realized what it was–the fluorescent ceiling lamp. She instinctively grabbed her head, a soft groan leaving her as she tried to recollect her thoughts. The last night at the restaurant must’ve been really crazy if this was how she was waking up–

With a jolt Alphys jumped out of bed. The restaurant! Oh no! she couldn’t believe she’d slept in so _late_! Frost was going to be _pissed_ at her!

Darting over to the dresser, she flung it open and pulled out the first pair of black pants and black button-up shirt she could find. Off those pajamas came and on came the pants, the poor lizard squirming around like a fish out of water as she attempted to shove her trousers onto her body.

With the pants on after a good wrestling with them, she jumped off the ground and darted for the door, throwing the shirt over her head. God, she needed to get _down there_ so she wasn’t holding Frost up!

The door flung open, the lizard making a mad dash down the hallway. However, once her head popped back up through the shirt, she collided head-first into the ice elemental. The smaller monster staggered backwards, a slight dizziness overtaking her. She never realized how _hard_ ice was. He felt like a brick wall!

“Alphys!” Frost’s booming voice caused Alphys to nearly jump out of her scales. Alphys immediately straightened up, doing her best to shake off the dizziness.

“A-ah, sorry, Frost! I–!!”

“Get out of that uniform.” The command in itself was enough to shake Alphys to her core, but as the room stopped spinning Alphys could see a nearly _seething_ expression on Frost’s face. 

_Oh no._

“Get back into bed _this instant_.” The elemental commanded, throwing his arm out and pointing back to her bedroom.

Alphys could feel herself shaking. Oh no. She’d pissed Frost off. _Genuinely_ pissed him off. She’d never seen him so angry before. He’s been annoyed or inconvenienced in the past, but this? This was _rage_.

“F-F-Frost!” Alphys gasped, trying vainly to calm herself down. “I-I just–!”

“ _NOW_.” 

Alphys drew back at the command, a terrified shiver running down her spine. It was the only hesitance she’d shown before darting back into her bedroom. She’d fucked up. _Really_ fucked up. 

Fearing what would happen if she angered Frost any further, Alphys wasted no time throwing her uniform off. As she wrestled to get the night gown back on, her mind began to race trying to figure out _where_ she’d gone wrong. What had she done to cause him to _explode_ like that? Things were normal last she could remember. They were at the restaurant, the day went perfectly fine, they were cleaning up, then...

Alphys’ movements halted almost immediately. Then... what? What had happened after they’d cleaned? Surely she’d assumed they’d left and went home to bed, but... everything from mid-cleaning onward was a blur. She remembered cleaning one of the tables... Frost coming out to talk to her... about what, she couldn’t recall. What she _did_ remember, though, was being tired. _Really_ tired.

Slowly the pieces began to come together. Foggy memories leading to her winding up in bed without realizing it? Her eyes widened as the realization hit her. She must’ve lost consciousness as Frost was talking to her. 

While pulling the gown over her head Alphys’ expression began to shift to that of realization. So _that’s_ what had happened. She’d pushed herself to her limit, and as a result she hurt herself and put those she cared about in a strenuous and frightening situation they didn’t deserve to be in... again.

A lump began to form in the reptile’s throat as she slithered back into bed. She’d needlessly put herself in harms way, and because of that she was causing Frost more trouble than he needed to deal with. Even when trying to help out, all she did was cause more problems.

Not a moment later, Frost swung the door open, the rage he was feeling still all but absent on his face. He didn’t take more than a step or two into the doorway before stopping, his sharp gaze shooting right through Alphys. How badly she wanted to disappear right in that very moment.

“F-Frost–”

“I told thee that thou needed to taketh a break.” Frost’s sharp words sliced through her own, silencing the smaller monster on the spot. Alphys pulled back reflexively, eyes darting away. “I told thee time and time again, yet thou insisted on overworking thyself.”

“Frost, I–!”

“I’m not done!” The ice elemental snapped back at her. Out of instinct, Alphys’ head pulled down, her body unconsciously doing its best to avoid confrontation with the taller monster. “What thou did was extremely reckless! Doth thou know how much _danger_ thou put thyself in?!” Frost ground his razor-sharp teeth together. “Not only was thou pushing thyself to thy limits, but thou art a busgirl, who works a position that requires thee to have a full bucket of dishes and sharp utensils at nearly all times of day! Thou thinks naught about thyself, and because of that thou put thyself in _grave_ danger!” Frost threw his arms out to the sides. “What would’ve happened if thou had fallen onto that bucket and onto something _sharp_?!”

Alphys’ grip tightened on the blanket as her eyes slammed shut. Had her chin not been touching her chest already she would’ve further lowered her head. She’d fucked up. _Royally_ fucked up. She’d caused Frost more trouble than she was worth. All she wanted to do was help, but instead all she did was burden him.

“Thou art _lucky_ that I was there to catch thee when thou collapsed.” Frost huffed. “I cannot afford to have thee working in such conditions anymore.” His arms went back down to his side, though his claw-like fingers were still curled into a clenched fist. “For that reason, I am putting thee on _mandatory_ sick leave. Thou art _forbidden_ to return to the restaurant for the next _three days_!”

Tears began to roll down Alphys’ cheeks, her back curling forward to keep her face that much more hidden from Frost. All she ever did was manage to make things worse for everyone else. It always happened. with her parents, in the lab, and now with Frost. She was only trying to help take the load off. She didn’t want him to have to deal with the restaurant on his own. Yet now, he would be forced to take on the responsibilities she tried _so hard_ to alleviate, all because she was too _weak_ and too _incompetent_ to help Frost out.

Slow yet decisive footsteps drew closer to Alphys. “From this day forward thou shall _only_ be working a maximum of _forty hours_ per week. I will _not_ allow any more. Thou _cannot_ change my mind on this.” The footsteps stopped only a foot away from the bedridden reptile. Alphys could feel his fiery gaze burning into her skull. “And if thou even _attempts_ to come to mine establishment on thy day off I will _personally_ take thee by the collar and _drag thee_ back to the house.” The ice elemental leaned forward, hands on his hips as he raised his chin at her. “Doth I maketh myself clear?!”

She knew it. She was being a burden. Mooching and freeloading off of him, sitting by and doing nothing while he showered her in nice gifts: darling little outfits, beautiful jewelry, gourmet meals... Her shoulders trembled, throat swelling to the point of near-suffocation as he talked down to her.

“Alphys, _look at me_ when I am _talking_ to thee!” He boomed, his grip tightening on his hips. He had a point he needed to get across, and _dammit_ , he was going to make sure it got through that head of hers!

Alphys’ breathing began to accelerate as he called her out. She bit down on her lip, struggling to keep herself together. Her attempts were in vain as his words tore her down bit by bit.

“ _Look me in the eyes!_ ”

That demand earned a flinch, and reluctantly Alphys brought her head up to him. The moment her eyes locked with Frost’s, his heart dropped _immediately_ , all of the anger that had been bottled up inside of him washed away in mere _seconds_. Alphys... was crying. She looked absolutely heartbroken. Never had he seen such a _broken_ expression from her. It was as frightening as the empty expression she had when he’d first found her. Her heart had been falling to pieces, and now he’d played a part in tearing her down even further.

“I... I-I’m sorry...!” Alphys’ voice was weak, at points cutting out with only the breath of her lungs able to convey her words. It made Frost’s own breath hitch in his throat. “I-I...” At this point her entire body was shaking. It was all the strength she could muster to look at him before her body curled in on itself. Her head lowered to her knees, her voice struggling to get out another word to Frost. The moment her forehead touched down, everything she’d been fighting to hold back broke loose into a loud, agonizing wail. 

As those harrowing cries hit his ears, Frost’s body immediately tensed. He’d meant to lecture her to the fullest, but _this_? This wasn’t how he’d expected her to react. He’d expected pouting, arguing back, maybe a _tad_ bit of remorse, but never did he _dream_ she’d break down _crying_. He’d taken it too far, and now, he was paying the price.

“A-Alphys!” Frost stammered, reaching out towards his companion. “P-please don’t cry! I-I’m sorry! I-I didn’t mean to make thee _cry_ , I-I just–!”

Frost’s pleas were cut off as another pained howl left Alphys. Oh no, oh no, oh _no_! This was _not_ how it was supposed to go! He had to fix this! But how?! What could he do!?

**_Fwump!_ **

Within seconds Alphys’ crying ceased. Both monsters tensed at the realization of what had happened. Frost hadn’t even registered that his body had moved, yet here before him was the proof that it had. His icy arms had wrapped themselves around the small reptile, pulling her into a consoling hug. Alphys’ eyes slowly looked over to her shoulder, still trying to process what had happened.

“Alphys... I’m sorry.” Frost whispered into her ear, his grip tightening ever so slightly. “I didn’t intend to upset thee, but thou cannot be pushing thyself this hard. Thy body can’t handle it like mine can.”

Alphys could hear her heart pounding in her ears. Her shaky breathing began to accelerate, and her claws once again gripped tightly at the sheets below her. Frost was so close to her...!

“I was so frightened when thou collapsed back in the restaurant.” He whispered, his forehead sliding down to touch her temple. “Thou would not awaken no matter what I did.” There was hesitance from the ice elemental. “Not even my healing magic was enough to waketh thee up.”

Alphys’ expression fell back down as the new information was revealed to her. She was in such a bad condition that Frost couldn’t heal her. She hadn’t even _known_ until that point that he _had_ healing magic. Healing magic was _extremely_ rare nowadays. It was tricky in itself to learn, but thanks to the king’s decree many monsters had forgone learning healing magic altogether. The only healers that were known around the Underground were the hospital workers and some of the older monsters of the Underground. To think that Frost had healing magic, and that her condition was so bad even _he_ couldn’t heal her...

“When I realized that thou had merely collapsed from exhaustion, I got so _angry_.” A scowl formed on the elemental’s face as those words left him. “This situation was something that could have easily been avoided, yet it was allowed to proceed to this point.”

“... I-I’m sor-r-ry, Fro-Frost...” A weak, cracking whisper caught Frost by surprise. Tears rolled down Alphys’ cheeks and fell down onto the sleeve of Frost’s suit, “A-a-all I wa-wanted to d-d-do was help...!” She sniffled in an attempt to keep her nose from running, Frost’s embrace as well as her weakened state keeping her from wiping her face herself. “”Y-y-you’re such a-a-a hard w-work-ker... a-a-and you-you’ve d-done so m-m-much for m-me...” Her teeth gritted tightly, a soft whine escaping her as she attempted to hold back another sob. “I-I-I just w-w-wanted t-to help lift s-s-some of the weight o-off y-your sh-sh-shoulders. I-I-If I asked f-f-for days o-off, i-i-it would-d-d’ve only put m-more stress o-on you, a-a-and I-I didn’t wa-wa-want that t-to happen to y-you...!”

Frost’s expression eased up, a sympathetic smile slowly taking its place. A hand moved towards the back of Alphys’ head, stroking it gently. “‘Tis not entirely thy fault, dearest.” He admitted, even though it pained him to do so. “I saw that thou had been worked to exhaustion, and though I did make suggestions I did naught to actually help thee rest.” His eyes darted away. “I should have put my foot down _then_ and told you to rest instead of letting it get to this point.” With his eyes off of Alphys he was able to take the moment to reach into his pocket, taking a hand off of Alphys to do so. He pulled out a cloth, and it wasn’t until it was brought to her face that she was able to recognize it as a handkerchief. While the gesture may have seemed childish to some, to Alphys it was calming. It was a gesture of consolation, one she hadn’t felt since she was a child. Her body relaxed into Frost’s hold, allowing him full permission to do as he pleased.

As Frost wiped away at the poor lizard’s face, his own mind had begun to race with thoughts. On one hand, he’d felt so guilty for letting it escalate to this point, but on the other hand, would he have felt just as guilty if he’d pulled her back right from the start? He’d been no fool. He knew Alphys was working her _ass_ off to prove that she wasn’t anything that the others made her out to be. She wasn’t only doing it to prove it to him and to the monsters of the Underground, but to herself as well. If he had pulled her out right from the beginning, he worried that she would get the wrong impression. Hell, it was happening even as they _spoke_ –it was clear that Alphys was seeing this as a lecture about her not being competent enough to handle the same workload Frost had spent _years_ adjusting to instead of a lecture about how she needed to take care of herself before all else. There was no doubt in his mind that she would’ve had the same thoughts had he forced her to take a break so long ago.

With her face as clean as he could get it, Frost set the handkerchief down at her side. Instead of wrapping his arms back around her, Frost’s icy hands moved forward, placing themselves right on her cheeks. Alphys could feel the color rushing to her cheeks. “I don’t know how much this means to thee.” He whispered, leaning in closer to Alphys, “but I want thee to know that I think thou art one of the most _hard working_ and _dedicated_ monsters I hath ever seen. Not just of those who are alive, but those I’ve known in days past as well.” Frost offered her a comforting, reassuring smile.

Alphys’ claws trembled at those words. It felt so good to hear those words. _Too_ good, in fact. One part of her yearned to hear those words of praise that seemed to elude her no matter where she went, yet another part felt as though she was _unworthy_ of them. She’d fucked up so badly, how could someone like _that_ earn praise? How could someone like that _redeem_ themselves?

No... She needed to stop thinking like this. She wasn’t trash. She wasn’t the piece of _garbage_ everyone else saw her to be. She was a monster worthy of praise, no matter how great or minuscule!

“I want thou to remember this above all else,” Frost leaned in close, their foreheads almost touching, “I will not think any less of thee for taking care of thyself. I’d rather thou remain well and rested than work thyself into an early grave.”

Alphys’ grip on the sheets tightened once more, eyes averting Frost as the whirlwind continued inside of her mind. If this was how exhausted she was, then what about Frost? He’d been doing hers _and_ his job for _years_ before she came along. There was _no way_ that this hadn’t been taking its toll on him, too.

It may have been a selfish request, especially with how dedicated to his restaurant he was, but...

“Frost,” She whispered so quietly that the ice elemental almost missed what she had said. “If... If I have to take a few days off,” Her breath hitched in her throat. “W-will you... take at least one day off, too?”

The request earned widened eyes from Frost. Such an odd request from her, but with Alphys’ current state of distress it would’ve been a _crime_ to turn it down. It was an innocent request, but it would come with the sacrifice of keeping his restaurant closed for another day. It was just that though—one day. A day’s worth of loss wouldn’t completely break him. He’d have plenty more in the future to make it up.

With a soft sigh and a gentle smile Frost leaned in, his forehead meeting hers as his hands slid over her trembling claws.

“Of course I will, dearest.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the restaurant closed for the day and some free time on their hands, Alphys begins work on her own personal project, while Frost decides to keep an eye on Alphys so she doesn't overwork herself. It isn't long before the silence causes dark thoughts to settle in...

_“Thirty-four hours!?”_

_“Thirty-four.” Frost echoed back dryly. “Thou had lost consciousness for thirty-four hours.”_

Come morning, Frost still looked a bit irked at the events that had transpired. To Alphys relief his anger levels were significantly lower today than they had been the day prior. Alphys felt slight guilt after bringing the topic up again early morning. Not enough to hold back her curiosity, but it was still there. She’d gone quiet for the morning routine, not wanting to rub any more salt into Frost’s wounds. To her surprise it only took until the end of breakfast for the rest of Frost’s anger to completely sizzle away, and Alphys very quickly found out why. 

Without wasting a single moment Frost had pulled out a toolbox from the adjacent laundry room, a beaming smile on his face. He flipped it open to reveal a screwdriver, several wrenches, a hammer, nails–all of the commonplace tools one would expect to have, and everything that Alphys had asked to borrow. She was elated already, but was surprised to find it wasn’t the end of it. Frost then whipped out a fabric shopping bag, pulling out something that Alphys _never_ expected Frost to have.

_“A soldering iron!?”_

Frost was beaming. The sheer amount of shock and joy on Alphys’ face when handed her new tools was enough satisfaction for Frost to have made going out and buying her the new electric tool completely worth it. Taking out a spool from the bag, he also added, “And solder for thee, too.”

“You did _not_!” Her claws hovered over her agape mouth. There was an odd sense of pride that welled up in Frost when she looked so taken aback. “Did you go out and buy this stuff?!”

“I did.”

“Oh my god!” She leaned back in the chair one hand falling on her chest. “Frost, this is too much! I can’t accept this!”

“I insist, dearest.” Frost nudged the tool and the spool of solder towards her. “Building is thy passion after all, is it not?”

“F-Frost... I don’t know what to say!” Alphys gingerly picked up her gifts, handling them with the most delicate touch. She looked like she was about to cry. “Th... thank you!”

“Thou art welcome, dearest.” Frost couldn’t help the beaming smile on his face. “I can’t wait to see what thou creates with thy hands.”

In moments, Alphys had gone from sulking and worrying about Frost’s mood to completely immersing herself in her current project. Frost had little idea how a soldering iron worked, but Alphys seemed to be having one heck of a time with it. She’d pulled all of the items she’d found from the dump, and once they’d set up a small work-space for Alphys in the kitchen, she dove right into her own project. To Frost’s surprise, she even had some blueprints prepared that she’d sketched out onto notebook paper. Frost briefly wondered when Alphys had gotten the time to sketch one out. The most he could figure was that she’d done it one night after work, forgoing sleep to get a personal project done. He wanted to reprimand her for doing so but he had no _proof_ that that was what she was doing. He knew though if he ever _caught_ her doing that, he’d have to give her a scolding for it. Nighttime was meant for _sleep_ , not _work_. That’s how Alphys ended up in this situation to begin with.

While Alphys went to town on her project, Frost had fetched that week’s newspaper to read at the table. Since he and Alphys had the day off together he wanted to spend some time with her. They hadn’t gotten a good chance to be alone, rested, and without tasks to distract them since Alphys moved in with him. That hadn’t been the _only_ reason he decided to stay in the kitchen with the papers, though. He also wanted to keep tabs on the little lizard, making sure that she didn’t overdo it and burn herself out again. He wasn’t sure how tiresome the tech-y work was, and wasn’t sure when enough would be enough. His solution: Stay at the table and keep an eye on her.

Looking up from the paper in his hands, the first thing Frost’s eyes gravitated towards was Alphys working away quietly at the table between them. It was honestly the first time in a while that he’d really gotten a good look at her away from work and stress. She’d gotten noticeably thinner, he realized. Not so much that she looked like one of those twig-thin models that seemed to be plastered all over the human media they got—she was still pretty plump—but it was enough to notice a difference. Her features in her face seemed to stand out a bit more than they used to: her cheeks, her jawline, and even a bit of her neck. Her clothes, though he’d only bought them a few months ago, were beginning to sag on her. She still filled out the outfit well enough, but in another month or so he was likely going to have to go out and get her some new clothes, work uniform included.

His eyes moved towards her hands, diligently working away at the knick-knack in front of her. She’d only been working for an hour, almost all of it in complete silence, and she already had this contraption half put together (At least to him it looked half-finished). It was incredible not only to see how much she’d put together in such a short time, but that she’d done so while making little noise or mess.

Frost’s mind flashed back to the days he’d go to the lab to visit Gaster. The building was unbelievably noisy, the sounds of metal machines constantly clanging and crashing as the scientists worked. Their stations—especially Alphys’—was always a complete mess. Tools would be strewn about the place, along with screws, bolts, wires, scraps of metal—anything and everything. To see her working now in such a peaceful, almost serene setting put an entirely new perspective on the things that went on in the lab, one that made a wave of guilt wash over the elemental.

Frost had always assumed Alphys was a slob when it came to... well, everything. While he’d enjoyed the flirting with her in those days, he would’ve been lying if he told others he didn’t look down on her for her sloppiness. Since the day he’d taken her in she proved to be just the opposite of that: Always keeping the place clean and picking up after herself. Even at work she was still paying mind to the mess she was making and was cleaning her space as she went along. Perhaps Alphys’ station back at the lab wasn’t messy because she herself was a slob. Maybe it was because she was stressed, anxious, and under very strict time constraints. She always seemed to have this look that she got three hours of sleep before jumping straight out of bed to get to work. The woman _lived_ where she worked, so it probably wasn’t far from the truth. Even though she’d recently collapsed from work, just after two days of rest Alphys looked remarkably more awake and alert than she ever did working for Gaster. Frost wondered what happened back at the lab when Alphys worked herself to exhaustion.

Frost’s eyes wandered back down to the papers in his hands, but not another word went read. The elemental’s mind became overrun with thoughts of what really went on behind those lab doors. His mind flashed back to the many times he and Gaster shared tea, his skeleton companion relaying the troubles the lab went through in layman’s terms so the chef could follow along. It didn’t matter how many times he was told, Frost was still in shock every single time.

_“Tomorrow? I can’t believeth our Majesty expects such feats to be accomplished in such few nights!”_

_“Our King has very high expectations of the Royal Scientist.” The skeleton took a light sip of his tea, just barely moving it away from bony lips as he finished. “I have made great strides in the past. I can assure you that this time is no different from the rest.”_

Frost could recall the admiration he felt towards the other. This wasn’t a simple little task the king wanted—This was asking a man to bend the laws of nature for the King’s own personal gain. The way Gaster cast aside Frost’s comments with no fear made him honestly believe that the insane sounding job could be done.

_“Even if_ thou _art able to handle it all, I am quite surprised to see that thy coworkers can keep up with thy pace as well.” He brought up, taking a sip of his own drink. Though the drink itself had a rather uncouth name, he found the flavor of the cherry bitch to be quite exquisite. “It seems thou hath chosen some fine pupils to assist in thy work.” A devious smirk worked its way onto his face. “And some of thy coworkers are fine eye-candy, if I do sayeth so mineself.”_

_Gaster was mid-sip of his tea when those words left Frost. He swallowed, setting his teacup down onto its saucer. Something about the clang of the china sent a shiver down the elemental’s icy spine._

_“Don’t flatter her.” Gaster spoke flatly, knowing exactly to whom his friend referred to. “Alphys is far from deserving of that kind of flattery, especially from an elite such as yourself.” Even though his tone was dull Frost could feel the harsh sting of each word. “The only reason she crawls over you like she does is because she desires validation. She is a disgrace to the lab and because of that she seeks out any means of getting attention, even if it means stooping to deplorable lows.”_

Frost remembered the almost painful silence that lingered between the two after that moment. The elemental had thought of the flirting as just that: flirting. It happened all the time in his restaurant. Beautiful women would come to the bar, exchanging flirts, maybe a kiss or two, but they always ended at that point. The only difference here was that instead of the restaurant they were in the lab. It was harmless flirting for the sake of flirting, so it had come to a shock that Gaster seemed to have an entirely different view on the topic.

_“I would advise you to stop this… ‘game’ you are playing with Alphys.” Gaster was the first to break the silence. “Next time you visit the lab it is to be kept strictly work-related. Understood?”_

Such a simple memory that had nearly been forgotten was now crawling back into his subconscious. Every time Frost heard about the strenuous work that was assigned to the scientists Gaster made it seem as though these trials were nothing that the laboratory staff couldn’t handle. The Royal Scientist always seemed so calm and collected and had always made that remark in such a sure way that Frost never thought to question it further. Now he was realizing that Alphys was not only pushing herself to her limits—She may have been _forced_ into working in unfair circumstances that she couldn’t handle.

His eyes once again wandered back to Alphys. His heart sank as the scenarios played out in his head. There was no way that the things Gaster said were true, at least not in their entirety. The way Alphys portrayed herself, not just now but in moments past as well, betrayed many of the things Gaster would frequently say about her. His stomach twisted into a knot as his imagination began to overrun his mind. What was _really_ happening behind those lab doors? Was Alphys really spending days and nights on projects because she was dedicated to her work or because she feared the consequences of not producing results in time? Was that how she’d gotten labelled as a failure in the lab? Were they expecting her to do more than she was capable of then punishing her when she inevitably failed to meet those unrealistic expectations? Had her flirting really been desperate cries for help, begging for him to help her? Had he blindly ignored the warning signs and let the chaos continue for his own selfish desires?

Frost felt a lump form in his throat. In that moment he no longer saw Alphys sitting in front of him, but instead a broken reflection of his past self.

“Alphys.”

With a simple “Hm?” Alphys lifted her head up to meet Frost’s gaze. She’d been so enraptured by her personal project that she’d completely drowned the world around her out. “I-I’m sorry. I wasn’t ignoring you or anything, was I?”

“N-No, I just,” Frost’s words trailed off. Without work to distract him, intoxicating thoughts were allowed to ravage his mind. No matter how many attempts he made to stave them off, they always came back with a bloodthirsty vengeance.

Taking a deep breath, the ice elemental pushed himself away from the kitchen table and stood up. “Thou hath been working quite a bit.” He commented, instinctively moving to the fridge. “Why don’t we taketh a break?” With a swing of his arm, the refrigerator door was flung open and Frost was already reaching towards the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon hiding in the back. “Thou art supposed to be relaxing and recovering, so I don’t want to see thee working thyself too hard.”

“O-oh, right.” Alphys sheepishly set the tools down inside of the tool box. “Give me a moment and I’ll have the mess cleaned up.”

“Don’t worry about the mess right now, dearest. I’m sure thou art planning to return to thy project at a later hour. I don’t mind.” The cabinet door had swung open, revealing a tidy arrangement of wine glasses. “A glass for thee?”

“N-no, I’ll pass.” Alphys turned down the offer, taking off the safety goggles she’d been wearing. “I don’t want to drink too much. It’s not a good idea to be using tools with impaired cognition.” She offered a sheepish smile. “B-but I appreciate the offer.” 

“I understand.” Without a moment’s more hesitation Frost began to pour himself a glass with the same finesse he’d always used at the restaurant, filling the glass almost up to its rim. “Then I hope thou doth not mind if I have a glass mineself.”

“No, you’re fine.” She’d assumed Frost was going to have a glass, otherwise why would he have pulled it out in the first place? As Frost was mid-drink, Alphys folded her hands in front of her. She was waiting for Frost to make a suggestion about what they should do. The way he pulled her from the work almost made it seem like he had some activities on his mind that he wanted to partake in. She waited patiently for Frost to finish his drink, thinking maybe he was wanting to finish his beverage before moving on, but as his lips parted from the side of the glass, he did nothing but stare blankly. She wasn’t even sure _what_ he was staring at: the table, the glass, the floors. Things were starting to get a little awkward.

Alphys feigned a cough, snapping Frost out of his trance. “So, um,” Her voice was more hushed. “W-was there something you wanted to do?”

“Hm?” Frost blinked, taking a moment to process the question. “I mean, was there something _thou_ wanted to do?”

“N-no but—I mean, you wanted to take a break, s-so I… guess I just assumed you had something in mind.”

Frost tried not to let the realization that had just hit him show on his face. He’d pulled Alphys away from her project so he could get his mind off of the dark thoughts ravaging his mind, yet he did so without any sort of plan to move forward. He could’ve left Alphys to her project and gone on his merry way, read a book or something to get his mind off of it. Perhaps he’d unconsciously projected his own thoughts onto her, assuming such troubling thoughts were plaguing her mind as well and wanted to pull her away from that. As much as he told himself that was the case, the egging denial in the back of its mind was trying its hardest to tell him otherwise.

“Well… I was thinking we could partake in something that thou enjoys.” Nice save. “After all, we are taking this day off for thee, art we not?”

“W-we’ll yeah, I guess, but…” Alphys’ cheeks were reddening. “It’s your day off, too. I kinda…” though what she wanted was simple, saying it aloud made her feel like she was making a selfish request. “I wanted to do something _you_ liked. Something outside of cooking.”

“Outside of cooking?” Frost echoed back.

“I haven’t really seen you outside of work.” Alphys’ eyes darted away. “I-I mean, I physically _see_ you, but it’s nothing more outside of getting prepared for the coming days. I don’t get to see what ‘casual’ Frost is like.” Her claws came together, her digits nervously fumbling with each other. “E-even when it’s just the two of us, I still get this impression that you’re trying to put on a show for me. Like, you’re trying to keep me entertained at all hours of the day.” Her shoulders fell, her nervous expression turning troubled. “I-I mean, I appreciate that you’re trying your best to make me happy, especially with all that’s going on, but...”

After what seemed like forever Alphys’ eyes finally met back up with Frost’s. “This is probably gonna sound _really_ selfish, but… sometimes the kindness feels like it’s too much. It feels like… you’re not being happy because you actually _feel_ happy, but because you’re trying to keep _me_ happy.” Her eyes fell once again. “It makes me feel guilty. It’s _my_ fault you’re pushing yourself to do things you don’t want to. It’s _my_ fault you’re not spending your downtime doing things _you_ like. It’s _my_ fault you’re not happy.”

“Alphys?” Frost’s heart sank to hear those words. Was that _really_ what she was thinking?

“Haha!” Suddenly, Alphys let out a forced laugh accompanied by an eerily hollow smile. “Wow, I got completely off track, didn’t I? What I wanted to say was that we’ve seen enough of _my_ hobbies and interests. I wanna hear about some of _yours_. Y’know, do some of the things _you_ like.”

No. Frost couldn’t run off and do an activity after _that_ revelation. This entire time he’d been trying to make her feel better, was he actually _hurting_ her? He meant no harm by the kind gestures, all he’d wanted to do was make her day a little brighter. Now he was hearing for the first time that those acts of kindness had been slowly ebbing away at her?

Frost’s mind flashed back to the moment at the dump. No, this wasn’t Alphys talking. This was something much darker taking hold of his friend and putting words into her mouth. This was another entity implanting these horrid thoughts into her mind.

And then, like a punch to the gut, Gaster’s words came slithering back into his ears.

_“Alphys is far from deserving of that kind of flattery. She is a disappointment, a disgrace to the lab.”_

“Alphys.” Frost pushed his empty glass to the side. “Why art thou saying such nonsensical things?” The elemental took a single step forward. “This doesn’t have anything to do with thy previous job, does it?”

“Don’t worry about it, Frost. It has nothing to do with anything.” That was a bold-faced lie, her still-empty words giving away her facade. “Just forget I said anything, okay?”

“Alphys,” It was clear she didn’t want to talk about it. The problem was, he _did_. This wasn’t something that they could just breeze over, but at the same time he wasn’t a therapist. What could he do to help her? It sickened him to think that, but it was the honest-to-god truth. With no other options available to him he simply gave in: perhaps doing what she wanted would help her to get out of the rut. While he’d refuse to forget about this exchange, he would abide by her wishes to do something he enjoyed for the time being. Something outside of cooking.

“Doth… thou enjoy novels?”

Alphys’ eyes lifted, her fake smile fading with it. Her expression was hard to read. It was a mix of curiosity and intrigue, but with a hollowness still seeping it’s way through. “You enjoy reading?”

“I do.” Frost _hated_ the stifling atmosphere that was lingering. He wanted it all to go away with a snap of his fingers. He merely hoped a little light reading might lift the mood even a little bit. “I don’t have much time to read, but I do keepeth a collection of novels in my sleeping quarters.”

Alphys’ expression began to grow warmer. The uncomfortable air was slowly starting to fade away, allowing Frost to breathe an internal sigh of relief. “Perhaps thou and I might enjoy the company of a nice book?” The elemental suggested.

Giving Frost a light smile, Alphys nodded. “That would be a great idea.” She hummed softly.

Frost mirrored the smile she gave him. “Then allow me to go fetch one of my personal favorites.” Like a bullet, Frost darted up into his room. It wasn’t more than a few moments later that Frost was bounding back into the kitchen, stopping in its doorway to reveal the book.

Slipping down from her chair, Alphys moved over to look at the title. “Lord of the Rings?” Her eyes hovered back up to Frost’s. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“ _Really_?” That one actually _shocked_ Frost. “This is said to be a _very_ popular novel on the surface. Most people I knoweth who like to read have heard of this.” He flipped it over, looking at its title. “It’s a fantasy adventure about a young gent who has to go on a grand quest to save his kingdom from a powerful dark force.” He lowered the book, looking back at Alphys. “‘Tis quite an engaging read, if I do sayeth so myself.”

Alphys’ cheeks turned a light shade of pink. Frost looked like an excited little boy, even if he did try his best to hide it behind his formal front. “It sounds like it.” She took a step forward. “Why don’t we read it, then?”

With a grin stretching across his face, Frost eagerly nodded. “Let us!” He made his way into the living room, plopping himself right at the edge of the couch. Alphys couldn’t help but giggle, but she kept it hushed as to not embarrass Frost. The elemental pat the seat beside him. “Come, dearest.” He urged her. “I shall read it to thee.”

“A-are you sure that’s fine?” Alphys walked up slowly. “I mean, I can help read, too, if you’d like.”

That made a blush creep onto Frost’s own face. “‘Tis fine, dearest. I shall read so thou may relax for a while.” Alphys sat herself beside Frost and looked up to him. “But if thou decideth that thou wanteth to read from the book, just speak up and I shall let thee.” He raised his eyebrows. “How does that sound?”

“Sounds good to me.” Alphys pulled her legs up, her heels resting on the edge of the couch. “Thank you.”

“Thou art welcome, dearest.” Without further hesitation Frost opened up to the first page of the book. He’d read this one so many times, he could practically recite the first few lines from memory. It really _was_ quite a good book. He hoped Alphys would think the same thing, too. Crossing one leg over the other, Frost began to read:

_“When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton...”_

As he began to recite the words from the book, he could feel Alphys nestling herself into the couch. Had he not been reading the text he would’ve loved to sneak a peek at her. From the corners of his eyes he could see her wrapping her arms around her knees as she pulled them to her chest. She looked so cute, almost like a little child! He dared not look directly at her as such a bold move would instantly make her shy away, and there was no way in _hell_ he was going to ruin a peaceful moment for her.

Time seemed to melt away as the two read their book together. They were no longer inside of Frost’s home, but whisked away to the land of Gondor, a mythical world full of many magical creatures. With each passing moment they were learning more and more about the people that inhabited this strange world and the grand quest that the main character–a hobbit named Frodo–would soon partake in.

_“... It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf-Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power–”_

Frost’s voice hitched in his throat when he felt the smaller body lean against him. Alphys felt his movement and instantly jumped back, her cheeks completely red. She turned her face away. “I-I-I’m sorry, I-I j-just... I-I was t-t-trying t-t-to get comfort-t-table, I d-didn’t mean to…!”

Giving a soft smile Frost wrapped an arm around Alphys’ shoulders, pulling her back in close. “‘Tis quite alright, dearest.” He whispered. “If this helps thou to relax, then by all means, thou may rest thyself against me.” 

She never looked back, and Frost could tell her cheeks were still as red as could be. For a moment he wondered if he should let her back away again, scared he might be overstepping his boundaries. Sure enough, Alphys ended up relaxing back into him. She’d closed her eyes shut, trying her best to relax.

With one last squeeze of her shoulders Frost returned back to the novel. There was no _way_ that they’d get through the entirety of the novel tonight, but there was one thing Frost was certain of: Reading even a few chapters of this book with her was a _wonderful_ , relaxing way to pass the day away...

_“... All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you...”_


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frost has returned to the restaurant while Alphys is still at home recovering. While taking care of his customers, Frost happens to see some interesting faces drop on by.

Back to the ol’ grind.

It felt so strange to leave Alphys behind at the house this morning. It shouldn’t have–he did it for a month before he’d hired her in, and she’d only been working for a few months since then. He’d gotten so used to having her with him all the time that it felt strange _not_ to. Unfortunately, that had also translated into work at the restaurant. While he’d never taken advantage of Alphys being there, it did dawn on him just how _hectic_ the work days used to be for him. Having a second body there to lighten the load made _much_ more of a difference than he realized.

Some familiars had come into the restaurant today, a bit more than the usual load. The restaurant had been closed for the last two days on short notice. It would only figure that they’d be eager to get back into the restaurant. Frost often told tales to the regulars who sat at the bars to keep them entertained. They seemed to be _very_ entertained by it, given that they always seemed to come back for more. The hooligans were usually plastered while the stories were told, so Frost sometimes wondered they even remembered them. Regardless, they always seemed to come back wanting more. Unfortunately for them, today wouldn’t be such a day. Without Alphys to help him clean up the tables, he’d have to put that much more effort into keeping the place tidy, which in turn meant less time to chat with the patrons. All he could hope was that the friends that his regulars came with would supply them with the entertainment they’d be losing from Frost.

As Frost finished pouring a drink for one group of monsters at the bar, he noticed a light out of the corner of his eyes. He turned, shocked to see a lightning elemental walk into his establishment. “Excuse me, gents.” He took a light now before beginning to move to the new customer.

Frost walked over to the stool the woman was aiming for, ready to greet her; However, quickly recognized the elemental that had paid a visit—it was the woman from the clothing shop! What was _she_ doing here?

“Greetings.” Frost greeted the other softly, still wondering if the troubles she’d spoken of at their last encounter were still in her thoughts. “Nariko, correct?”

The lightning elemental looked up. Her eyebrows were raised, and as he suspected her spirits were anything but. “I’m shocked you remember.” Her back straightened out. “But I guess that kind of trait is what makes a good business owner.” She gave the other elemental a light nod. “Good to see you again, Mr. Frost.”

Frost gave a weak smile, her downed mood preventing him from giving anything stronger.

“I’ll just take today’s special.”

“The Pink Lemonade Margarita?”

“Please.”

“Coming up.”

It didn’t take him much longer than a minute to get the drink mixed up for her. It wasn’t that difficult to make up, but he always made sure that they were made to perfection, making the wait time just a tad bit longer than normal. With the drink set down in front of her, Frost finally had the courage to attempt to dispel the awkward air lingering between them. “So how are things with thy husband, if thou doth not mind me asking?” He queried. “Thou had mentioned it during our last encounter.”

Nariko hesitated to answer, pulling the margarita up to her lips to take a sip. Her face was scrunched up into something of a mix between anger and sorrow. Perhaps he shouldn’t have brought up the topic, he thought. As her lips parted with the drink, she finally answered. “Relatively speaking, yes he is doing well. If you meant to ask me how my situation is, it hasn’t gotten any better.”

Straight to the point, it seemed. “Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” The chef wasn’t sure how much more he could offer her aside from that. He didn’t know what was going on with her other than “family issues,” and with the expressions she was making he wasn’t sure he should prod her for answers until she was ready to talk.

Taking a step back, Frost offered Nariko a light bow. “Feel free to taketh as long as thou needeth to decide on food. I shall be back momentarily.” Nariko seemed like she needed a moment to indulge herself in her drink, and his restaurant gave him the perfect excuse to do so. He’d take a cycle around the joint, waiting on the other patrons that had wandered into the establishment for a bite.

It had been a good fifteen or twenty minutes before Frost had waited on enough people to circle back around to where he started. He’d forgotten how much more work having to keep the tables clean was, since Alphys was no longer there to help him with that. They’d have to figure out which days weren’t quite as busy, Frost thought, that way they could properly utilize staff and would be able to give Alphys her days off on their lowest traffic days. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to look into hiring some more staff, too. It really depended on where the budget sat, but he’d look into that another time.

Sliding back behind the bar counter Frost waited on the other few monsters sitting at the opposite end before making his way back to Nariko. She’d managed to finish off most of her drink already. She _must_ have been stressed. Hopefully Nariko handled her alcohol well.

“Art thou ready to order?”

There was still hesitance from Nariko, but Frost knew she wasn’t mulling over the menu. At first he’d taken the silence as a no, almost turning to leave her be. Before his feet began to shift, the other elemental spoke up.

“It’s our daughter. She’s gone missing.”

The chef’s eyes went wide, shoulders falling at the sudden revelation. Her daughter was missing?! Of all of the things to happen to this couple… a missing child...!

“She’s been missing for months.” Nariko did her best to stay calm, but the cracks in her voice were doing little to help her out.

Months?! Her daughter was missing for _months_?! His stomach turned. He didn’t know how to say it, but with a child being gone for so long out in this world where it was kill or be killed, there was no _way_ that their daughter had survived. Not only was a child an easy kill, but an _elemental_ child was almost invaluable. Elementals were rarities. They were worth much more than any other normal monster due to their scarce numbers and incredible magical capacity. The only ones that could likely outmatch them for value were boss monsters. That meant if one could get their hands on an elemental, that meant ultimate bragging rights.

That poor child.

“My husband and I have been searching nonstop for her.” She murmured. “We haven’t been able to find a single clue about her whereabouts or what happened to her.” Elemental’s couldn’t cry, so it was hard for Frost to distinguish if Nariko was shedding theoretical tears or not. She was still doing her best to keep it calm and collected. “We still are doing our best to keep hope that we’ll find her, but...” her head hung, unable to finish the sentence.

“I am so sorry for thee.” Frost apologized, bowing his head somberly in understanding of her situation. Though he knew that the search for her daughter might be a fruitless effort, he knew that he couldn’t leave her to wallow in her misery without offering some kind of help to her. “Is... is there’s anything I can do for thee?”

“I don’t even know anymore.” There was a moment where she sat silently, her hands moving back to cover her face. It was likely that the alcohol was clouding her thoughts, as she seemed to struggle to answer the question posed to her. They’d been searching for this poor girl for _months_ , and with nothing to prove that she really _had_ been killed a mother would never give up so soon in her search. Not until she had answers. While Frost believed it was a vain endeavor, he could understand her mindset to a certain extent. Any parent should be desperate to find their child, to search to the ends of the earth to find their precious baby, the light of their world that gave their life a whole new purpose...

... _Should_.

“Mrs. Nariko,” Frost spoke in a hushed tone. “If there’s anything—even the smallest thing that I can do to assist thee in thy search, please let me know.”

Nariko’s hands slid down her face bumping her glasses and nearly pulling them off of her face. The alcohol was starting to set in. “My little girl...”

It was so strange to see Nariko in such a sensitive state. She was acting much different than the woman she presented herself as during their first encounter. It was easy to tell which one was her true personality though. This Nariko in front of him was simply a mother torn over the loss of her daughter. The alcohol simply brought out the more sensitive side of the elemental.

“What doth she look like?” Frost tried to chime in. While he hadn’t seen many elementals walk through lately, that didn’t mean that they didn’t exist out there. If he could get a few more details on this girl’s appearance perhaps he could help her by keeping an eye out at the restaurant. Even during his and Alphys’ commute to work they could be on the lookout for this little girl. “Perhaps she might have stopped by the establishment at some point?” A lie, but he had to say _something_ to try and get Nariko to talk.

There was a moment where Nariko was trying to recollect herself. He waited patiently for her. Hopefully she wouldn’t take too much longer to answer, he thought to himself. He had other patrons in the restaurant to wait on, and as much as he wanted to stay and console Nariko, he had to keep his business afloat too. The last thing they needed were angry patrons to break into the conversation and give them hell while Nariko was in such an emotionally disturbed state.

“... She has red eyes.” Nariko started, though she was unable to keep eye contact with Frost. It was all she gave before going silent again. Frost was starting to get antsy. Hopefully she wouldn’t keep it up too much longer.

“... I’m sorry.”

Frost’s eyebrows raised at the apology. Nariko was still refusing to look the restaurant owner in the eyes. “I... I can’t...”

Frost wasn’t sure where she was going with her statement, but it gave him a good opportunity to give Nariko another moment to herself as well as a moment to wait on his other customers. “Why don’t thou taketh another moment to collect thy thoughts?” He offered. “Thou looketh like thou needeth it.” He took two side steps towards the door to the bar. “I will wait on the others whilst thou recovers.”

After she gave a nod of approval to Frost the entrepreneur made another round of the joint. A few more new faces came in, and it was about time to start cooking up some food. It was going to be a while before he could return back to Nariko. He felt guilty, but at the same time his business was teetering on a thread. After taking Alphys in to work for him his restaurant had started to get a bad reputation. Even though it hadn’t done _too_ much damage to customer flow, he was still walking a very thin line. One small incident could be all it took to set everyone off, and if their perception became that he was ignoring the rest of his patrons for someone else–a female elemental that others might assume he was flirting with–things would end badly for him.

He began to work his magic in the kitchen, dancing around cooking five different meals at once. Thankfully many shared similar ingredients, making the process a bit easier on him, but it was still a task that required his full concentration. Everything was on a schedule, and if he was even a _moment_ late moving to the next step then _everything_ would be thrown out of whack. Back and forth he went, flipping, steaming, stirring... Once again, for a brief moment, he thought of the possibility of hiring new workers. If he could afford it it would take a huge load off of his shoulders. Less of his attention would have to be focused on the patrons, which meant more focus could go to the kitchen and bar.

Time seemed to fly for Frost, but by the time he’d finished all of the dishes and delivered them out to their respective tables, he realized that nearly forty-five minutes had flown by! It was the normal time it took to get the meals out on a regular basis, but with someone actively waiting for his return that time frame seemed like it had been _so_ long. With his other customers finally catered to, the elemental made his way back to the booth. “My apologies, Mrs. Nariko!”

“You’re fine.” Now that Frost could take a moment to breathe, he realized that Nariko had managed to return herself back to her calm, collected, usual self. Even her voice had changed back to that stern tone she’d used back then. Now that was even more confusing. Had the display earlier been a drunken moment? That’s what he thought, but the way she sobered up so quickly made him question otherwise. Perhaps she just had a weak moment and the alcohol just tipped her over the edge? Who could honestly say other than Nariko at this point.

“I appreciate you helping me out, Mr. Frost.” Nariko did the best she could to bow giving her sitting position. “I apologize for my unbecoming behavior earlier.”

“‘Tis quite alright, Madam.” Frost mirrored her bow. “I hope thou art feeling better.”

“Much. I think I just needed to get some stuff off of my chest.” She began to fish around in her pocket. “How much was the drink.”

“‘Tis on the house for you, Madam.” Frost put a hand up in a stopping motion. “Thou hath been through quite a lot. It’s the least I can do to help thee out with thy situation.”

Nariko’s hand stopped in her pocket, but it didn’t leave. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, ma’am. My treat.”

Nariko’s eyelids lowered. “Well, then.” She began fishing around once more. “At least, if nothing else, allow me to give you this.” She pulled out her hand, but instead of the gold like Frost was expecting, it was a business card. Seemed he wasn’t the only one who liked to carry them around. “Do you have a pen?”

Frost flinched, but quickly snatched up a nearby pen resting beneath the bar, handing it to Nariko. She took it, quickly scribbling down a sequence of numbers on it. She handed it over to Frost. “My numbers. The printed is my work number, the written is my cellphone.” Frost took the card from Nariko, but before he could move away Nariko cupped his hand in hers. “Please... _please_... If you find anything– _anything_ –regarding my daughter, _please_...” She looked Frost in the eyes, a desperate gleam reflecting off of hers. “Don’t hesitate to call me.”

With a soft smile, Frost placed his free hand over hers, giving them a light squeeze. “Calling thee will be the first thing I do.”

With one final exchange of smiles, the two let go. “I really should get going. Sorry for only coming for the drinks.”

“Nonsense, that it what mine restaurant is for.” Frost reassured her. “I just wish thou could have come under different circumstances.”

Nariko nodded. “My husband is probably going to be home soon. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

Just then, a light bulb lit in Frost’s head. “Hey, wait.” Frost stopped Nariko, who turned with an eyebrow raised. “Why don’t thou and thine husband come to my abode one night for dinner?” He offered. “I would liketh to do everything I can to help thee in thy search, even if it’s only emotional support.” He gave another respectful bow. “Please, it’s the least I can do for thee.”

There was a moment of silence, but then a warm smile grew on Nariko’s face. “That would be very nice. Thank you for the offer.” She returned his bow. “My husband and I would gladly come over. Anything for someone who’s willing to help us out.”

A strong sense of pride began to well up within Frost. “I shall call thee at a later time to discuss dates then.” He folded his hands behind his back. “I won’t keep thee held up here to discuss such things. Thou have a husband to return to and a child to search for. Don’t let me keepeth thee away from that.”

Nariko turned away, giving Frost one last smile over her shoulder. “Thank you so much, Mr. Frost. My husband and I owe you so much for this.” With that, she made her way off to the exit. “Good day.”

Frost looked down at the business card. Hotland’s Blooming Lotus. Sounded like an interesting name for a business. He wondered what kind of business she ran.

And then, something just dawned on him: _He never got any more details about what her daughter looked like!_ He had become so distracted by the work of the restaurant that he’d completely forgot to ask her again!

Frost let out a frustrated sigh. He didn’t mean to forget, but when he was very pessimistic about the couple’s chances of finding their child it was a little hard _not_ to forget things like that. What point was there to getting the child’s appearance when she was probably nothing more than a pile of dust by now?

Frost shook his head. No, he needed to stop with this mentality. He’d already decided that she was someone who needed help, and even if he thought it was a fruitless endeavor, he still needed to do his part and help her. Frost slid the business card into his pocket. He’d have to call her at a later time and try and get more details. For now, he supposed he’d just be on the lookout for a small, elemental child with red eyes.

As he returned back to his work, something odd caught the corner of Frost’s eye—a reptilian monster sitting in the seat closest to the edge of the bar. He’d never even _seen_ them walk in! They donned extremely strange clothing, wearing a shirt and full arm-length gloves that were rainbow striped, a complete 180 from the blacks, reds, and golds that nearly every other monster wore. Frost couldn’t believe it: Even for the booth patrons he’d be able to spot nearly all of them as soon as they walked in, yet somehow this neon green-scaled monster managed to come up—right to the bar—and gone completely unnoticed. Not even the other patrons seemed to notice the strange reptile. It was possible that he’d been simply distracted by Nariko, but given the (lack of) reactions from the monsters around them it seemed highly unlikely.

Frost didn’t dwell on the strangeness of the new patron. Too much mulling and he might’ve raised some eyebrows. “Hello there!” Frost approached the stranger. Normally the sight of such an oddly-dressed stranger would’ve worked him up, just like with Bratty and Catty, yet the elemental was still a bit too baffled by the stranger’s sudden appearance to focus on the little annoyances. “I hope I haven’t kept thou waiting for long!” With a twist of the wrist, he grabbed one of the clean wine glasses hidden below the counter and placed it in front of the monster. “May I get thee a beverage to start off thy meal?”

“Just water.” The monster answered. Their voice sounded very young, like a boy who’d yet to go through puberty. Finally able to get a good look at the face of the stranger, he could see a very… average looking face. There wasn’t any better way to describe it. The boy seemed to have a disinterested look in his eyes, with half of his face hidden behind blonde unkempt hair, but aside from that, there was nothing really noteworthy about the monster’s face. “I would like an order of sweet potato bites, too.”

“Ah, dost thou have a sweet tooth?” Frost inquired, turning away to fill up a glass of water. “Doth thou prefer sweeter meals as well? We have plenty of options on the menu if thy taste buds lean that way.”

“I actually prefer bug-based meals.”

That one comment made Frost freeze in place. Bug… based… foods…!? He didn’t _dare_ turn around to reveal his shocked expression. Had the boy not said it in such a serious tone, Frost might’ve thought he was joking. But there was nothing: no laugh, no punch line, no anything.

“You didn’t have any on your menu, so I just ordered something else.”

“A-ah, I see.” Frost turned back around, but the moment his eyes locked back on the reptile, he’d nearly lost grip of the drink. This monster! Their scales were red, now with black hair and punk-style clothing. But… but… the stranger was just green, blonde, and wearing rainbows just a moment ago! 

“Th-thy water, sir.” Frost stammered, placing the drink in front of the reptile. The stranger was either completely oblivious to the shock or they simply didn’t care, as they took the drink from Frost without sparing even a single glance. Frost was hoping the boy would say something, give _some_ kind of explanation to the appearance change, but as the stranger sipped on their drink Frost realized he wasn’t getting any answers. While he wanted to prod into it, he knew how rude it was to pry and ask strange questions. Best to simply tend to the other patrons, he thought. Though as he turned his back, the stranger spoke up once more.

“You’re the owner, right? You’re Mr. Frost?”

Frost turned back to the reptile, eyebrow raised. “I am.”

Instead of replying verbally, the stranger gestured for Frost to move in closer. Frost began to tense. This person was getting stranger by the moment and it was _very_ unnerving. Nevertheless, he leaned in, his guard fully up ready to attack if need be. When close enough, the stranger spoke words that nearly made Frost’s heart stop.

“Keep an eye out for yourself and those who are close to you.”

The elemental’s eyes went wide. What the hell was _that_!? Was this a threat? A warning? What in the world?!

“Misfortune is about to fall upon you and your precious one. Stay on your highest guard and keep them close to you, lest this misfortune turn to tragedy.”

Frost backed away from the stranger. Misfortune? Tragedy? Precious one? His expression was wary, no longer sure about anything that was happening with this stranger. Were they friend? Foe? What was with this warning? If they were truly in danger, why were they being so vague and cryptic?! Apparently their lives could be on the line!

“You know what, nix the potato bites. I think I’ll just take my leave now.” The stranger tossed a small sack of gold in front of them. “Here. To compensate for the time.” They then locked eyes with Frost. “Heed my warning, Mr. Frost.”

Wait, they were leaving?!

“B-but—!”

“Oi, Frosty-boy!” One of the more tipsy patrons sitting at the bar hollered for him. “Another drink for me and my buddy here!”

Frost turned to the pair, doing his best to mask the anxiety welling within him. “Y-yes, I shall be with thee in just a moment.” He turned back to the boy. “But—!”

Frost’s breath caught in his throat. Just like that, the stranger was gone! He’d vanished almost as mysteriously as he had appeared. Who was that? That wasn’t... some kind of illusion, was it? Frost reached out to the pile of gold coins in front of him. They were tangible—real gold that he could feel weighing his palms down. What did that mean of the monster who’d handed him the money? Where had they come from? Why did they come for Frost? What did they mean by “misfortune turns to tragedy?”

“Oi, whatcha doin’ starin’ off into space?” The bar patron called out to Frost again. “Ya can’t be recollectin’ yer own stories without sharin’ ‘em, mate!” They gestured Frost over. “Come on, Frosty! Share some of yer tales!” He bellowed, the command followed by several cheers from other patrons at the bar.

“R... right...” Frost stammered, still shaken by what had happened. Putting the money away he turned to his fellow monsters. “Let me... wait on the rest of mine customers, then I shall tell thee another story.”

What kind of danger had Frost gotten himself into?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alphys has returned from her mandatory leave of absence, but not long after the shift starts she already finds herself being rubbed the wrong way. It doesn’t help when another monster walks in to stir up some trouble.

“He’s _such_ a cutie, isn’t he?”

 _God_ , Alphys wasn’t sure how much more of this she could listen to. These girls were practically _drooling_ all over Frost like he was some kind of piece of thick, juicy meat. Some of the stuff she couldn’t _believe_ they had the gall to say put in a _public space_. Then again it wasn’t like they had any problem calling _Alphys_ horrible, unspeakable names in public.

“Trust me, by the end of the dinner, he’ll be _begging_ me to give him my number.”

“I can see it now: The first-class treatment, being pampered and treated like a _queen_ –you’ll be living the high-life!”

With her back safely facing the girls, Alphys rolled her eyes. How much of a _moron_ did these girls take Frost for?! Did they _seriously_ think he was going to fall head-over-heels for them the moment he looked at them? Just because _these girls_ didn’t have any _dignity_ , that didn’t mean _Frost_ didn’t either.

“What about the little tramp?”

“What do you mean ‘what about the tramp?’ She’s just a nobody who only hangs around Frost to make herself feel important.”

Oooh, how she wanted to _deck_ these girls in the face.

“You really think she and _Frost_ are a thing? Puh-leeze! A man as high-class as him wouldn’t stoop to such _lows_. The _only_ reason she’s here is because he took _pity_ on her. Why else would she be hired in as a _busgirl_ and not a _waitress_?”

The words they spoke were starting to sting. While they were still _annoying as fuck_ for Alphys to listen to she couldn’t deny that there was at least an _inkling_ of truth in what they said. When she’d gotten hired in, the only option given to her was busgirl. It made sense, since she’d only shown him her cleaning skills and was not exactly a face people would want waiting on them, but the venom in their words slowly seeped into her mind, making her question whether or not she ever truly would get promoted to anything better than busgirl.

Alphys quickly shook her head. Ignore them, she told herself. They _knew_ she was within earshot and she knew they didn’t care one bit. They were just desperate plebeianshoping to get into Frost’s pants... and wallet.

“Oh my god, can you just _imagine_ the type of dates a _rich_ monster like himself could take a girl out on? I’ll be living the _dream_!”

Some of these monsters were so _deplorable_. These same people had the _gall_ to go around accusing her of sleeping around with nothing but the papers as “proof” yet they had zero shame in going around talking like _this_?! Out in _public_?! In a strange sense it made her feel justified. At least she didn’t act as deplorable as these monsters.

As she threw dirty silverware from the adjacent table into her tub, she let out an exasperated sigh. It was annoying enough just _listening_ to this crap, but when Frost came out and began _playing along_ with it, it only irked her even more.

“Good day, mine lovely ladies! Wouldst thou like to start off with some pink ladies? A drink fitting to match thy beauty, if I do sayeth so mineself.”

No matter how many times she’d told herself to relax she still couldn’t do it. These situations had happened in the past, and even though Frost had explained his reasoning for playing into their hands she still couldn’t quite get over the bitterness welling up inside of her.

_“I don’t get it, Frost! These girls, the way they talk about you... they have **zero** respect for you! _ _They don’t want anything meaningful with you! All they want is your money!”_

_“I knoweth that.”_

_“If you know that, then why do you still flirt with them?!”_

_“Business, dearest. Even if I haveth no intention of partaking in any relationships with these women, playing this little_ charade _is much more likely to maketh them come back to mine establishment than it is if I giveth them the cold shoulder.”_

That’s right. Business strategy. It was all part of a business strategy. Despite knowing that, it still felt _wrong_. She hated it. She hated every last moment of it. 

“I just _love_ that red _sheen_ you give your ice, Mr. Frost. So _enticing_! Tell me, is it natural?”

“Would’st thou really liketh to know? I don’t like giving out mine secrets, thou shouldst know!”

“Oh, I do! Surely you wouldn’t mind telling _little ol’ me!_ ”

Ugh, she couldn’t _stand_ any more of this! Grabbing the last of the dirty dishes off of the table, Alphys stormed back into the kitchen. Dishes needed to be cleaned, and if aggressively cleaning off said dishes helped her to release her pent-up anger then so be it! It gave her a _great_ excuse not to have to be out in the restaurant listening to these _bimbos_!

She’d lost track of time while scrubbing. Lost in her own thoughts, the minutes seemed to fly by her without her even realizing it. Frost had popped in once or twice during her washing frenzy, but he’d left her to her own. Whether it was due to being busy or him sensing her anger was a mystery, but regardless he left Alphys to do her own thing.

With a loud, angry snort Alphys piled dish one after another. Those stupid bitches! Thinking they could so _easily_ woo a man with nothing but their looks! Frost was a _dignified man_ who deserved _much more respect_ than those girls were willing to _shell out_ to get to his money... and who the hell would ask him why his ice was _red_!? Wasn’t it obvious!? This Underground was seeping with monsters who were lurking around for innocent prey! If you don’t blend in with the crowd, you’ll be eaten up by them in no time flat. Everyone in the Underground knew that! Why would they ask such a _stupid_ question?!

She hesitated as she pulled out the next rack. Then again, when she really thought about it... what _did_ make Frost’s ice red? She’d never really thought about it before. She’d just attributed it to needing to look like everyone else so he could blend in. There was no way his ice was _naturally_ red, was it? Elementals usually took on the raw form of whatever element they embodied, didn’t they? She’d never seen red ice before. It had to be something else mixed in with the frozen water that was making him such a deep shade of red. Was it food dye? Juice? Or maybe even...

Blood?

Alphys immediately shook her head. No, Frost wasn’t a violent man. Even if he _had_ killed, he would either have to be a serial murderer or would have to torture a monster by draining every last bit of blood from their body and bathing in it before they died. After all, once a monster died, they turned to dust, so the only way he could get blood out of a monster was to cut them while they were still alive. The idea was ludicrous and downright insane! Frost didn’t show any behaviors indicative of a serial murderer. He would’ve been an emotionless husk who let people fall over and take advantage of them at every opportunity. The more one killed, the easier it became to detach themselves, and Frost was _anything_ but detached.

That begged the question then: What _was_ his red ice made of?

Alphys shook her head once more. No, it was probably natural. Perhaps there were other elementals that were naturally discolored, different from the pure elements that they represented. After all, she’d heard of two flame elementals that were violet and green, and unless they were eating the appropriate chemicals all day every day to maintain that color, they _had_ to be natural. Besides, why was she letting some _bimbo’s_ questions get the best of her!? She wasn’t about to let them get into her head and play games with her! Besides, she _lived_ with Frost! If she wanted to know about his red ice, then he’d tell her. After all, he had no problem telling two _strangers_ about it, so why wouldn’t he tell her if she asked?! Slamming the next plate down, she went right back to her furious scrubbing, fighting with the skillet tooth and nail to make sure that all her frustrations were taken out on the dried bits of food still lingering on the dish.

She spent another good while with the dishes. With the last of them clean and on the drying rack, Alphys had finally managed to calm herself down. Her mind was no longer clouded with thoughts of those two women and their giant-ass ego’s. She’d stepped out of the kitchen to finish cleaning off tables and was relieved to find that they’d already left. Good riddance. Now she could finally work in peace, at least until the next monster or group of rapscallions decided to drop in and shit on her.

Unfortunately that moment was a bit closer than she’d hoped.

While cleaning off one of the tables, Alphys could hear the front door to the restaurant fly open. Whatever, Alphys thought. She carried on with her cleaning, tossing a few more stray dishes into her tub. It was probably some monster thinking he was hot shit waltzing into the restaurant.

She didn’t realize how right she was.

“Well, well, _well_ , long time no see, _Mr. Pines_.”

Heads turned to the stranger, who’d bellowed out an announcement of his arrival. Alphys was no exception, now turning with a roll of the eyes to see who had the gall to try and start shit up at a _restaurant_ of all places. 

At the entrance, the Underground’s most notorious violet-flamed fire elemental slouched against the doorframe, a lit cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. Grillby... Snowdin’s sleazy bar owner and a man notoriously known for causing trouble any time he set foot outside of his own territory. Everyone at the restaurant knew he was there to start some up something, the fire elemental making no effort to hide his devious smirk from the ice elemental across the restaurant. Out of the several dozen patrons present at the establishment, only a handful weren’t surprised to see the see the new elemental. While most were curious to why the trouble maker had walked to this side of the Underground, it wasn’t exactly a secret why Grillby might have paid a visit to a select few.

“Miss me?”

Frost had turned his head to face the purple flamed monster. He would normally _never_ interrupt waiting a monster, but his hand had stopped writing. With the restaurant having gone silent, the only noise heard was his thumb starting to click the pen in his hands with escalating speed. His body visibly tensed despite his best attempts to withhold showing such stress. Even his face, once having been so full of cheer for another business day, had twisted into a disgusted frown.

Alphys body stiffened the moment she noticed Frost doing the same. This was bad. Shit was about to start going down and she _really_ did not want this to happen, especially _now_ while she was still trying to settle from the incident earlier. She hadn’t seen these two interact before, but just from that one moment she could tell that things were going to get tense in the restaurant, and despite her sizzling anger levels several dozens of questions began to fill Alphys’ mind. Why did Grillby call Frost “Mr. Pines?” Have they known each other for a while? How deep did their history go? Should she try to intervene and stop something before it started? Should she stay out of the way and let Frost handle the situation? Frost would be civilized enough not to start a fight, Alphys knew, but what of Grillby? 

Frost pocketed the notepad with the half-finished order and pen, walking away from the monster he had been waiting on with a soft “pardon me” escaping under his breath. He wouldn’t respond to such filth, especially when it wasn’t welcomed here. He wouldn’t respond with violence either. Hopefully the visible disapproval would be enough to drive Grillby out.

“Aww, already giving me the cold shoulder? How rude!” Grillby pouted, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth. As the smoke started to spill from his mouth, his eyes fixated themselves on the little bus girl standing off in the corner. His and Alphys’ eyes locked almost immediately.

_Oh no._

With a cocky huff Grillby pushed himself up off of the wall, sauntering over towards where the lizard stood. Alphys’ guard went on high alert almost immediately. “So, _you’re_ the little pear everyone’s talking about in these parts.” the fire elemental cooed. Alphys couldn’t make a move. Fleeing now would only accentuate the lies he was undoubtedly going to throw every which way. Not only would that make her look more guilty than what everyone was already making her out to be, but it also would damage Frost’s name just as much as hers.

With the space between them getting dangerously small for Alphys’ tastes, Grillby finally stopped. It was too soon for her to take a breath. Moments later he was reaching down to caress her cheeks. “What a cutie.” he hummed, the hairs on his fur-lined jacket tickling her chin. “You know,” he murmured, “if you’re looking for a good time, I can give you a much better ride than that ice cube ever could–!”

**_SMACK!_ **

Grillby was slapped across the face. It wasn’t strong since the lizard monster didn’t have much strength to speak of, but it was enough to leave a sting and make the elemental draw back. All of the anger and rage Alphys had worked so hard to suppress throughout the day had come boiling back to the surface, the heat of her anger reflecting in her burning eyes. “You are not welcome here.” She hissed, only a split second away from breaking out into a shout. “Leave at _once_.”

“Yikes!” Grillby gave a scowl back, rubbing his cheek. “Quite the _sour_ pear.”

Grillby turned back to Frost, his troublesome smirk returning almost instantly at the sight of Frost’s anger levels rising. Dismissing Alphys completely by this point, Grillby slid the cigarette back into his mouth, cocking his head to the side. “So Mr. Pines, I caught wind that you closed down the restaurant for a few days.” He raised his eyebrow, shoving his hands into his coat pockets. “Heard it was due to a ‘family emergency’ of sorts.”

Alphys wanted nothing more than to kick him outof the restaurant before he caused a scene. However, she was nothing more than a bus girl. She had no authority to do such a thing: only Frost did. Her comment before might have even been stepping out of line, but if Frost had heard what he’d said to her he would have backed her up. She just prayed to the high heavens that Frost would have the sensibility to kick him out before he had a chance to stir the pot even more.

“You tryin’ to pull the wool over your patron’s eyes, Mr. Pines?” The fire elemental began taking slow, decisive steps towards his icy counterpart, the flames spewing from his head cackling and popping with each step. “You and I both know you ain’t got a family to speak of. There’s _no way_ you could’ve been off for a ‘family emergency.’”

Wait, what? This was the first time Alphys was hearing about _any_ of this, and based on the whispers of the surrounding patrons, it was _their_ first time hearing it too. No family? At all? That nugget of knowledge only made her anger boil to exceedingly high levels. To come in, start a scene, and then go on by mocking Frost using his deceased family as leverage to rub more salt in the wound—Grillby was getting _dangerously close_ to making her lose her temper!

Frost’s posture noticeably shifted after the comments were made. He’d brought his arms forward, gripping his own biceps in frustration. The last “Mr. Pines” echoing through the restaurant was enough to push the irritated frown into a scowl. “Mine business is none of thy concern.” He leaned forward. “If thou art going to continue to cause problems, leave. I hath already warned thee what would happen if thou stepped in here again after _last_ time.” His eyes narrowed. “If it weren’t for my current company that threat would be _due_ , my _lesser_.”

So it seemed these two had _many_ encounters before, Alphys thought. That also meant that this wasn’t just a one-off thing. Grillby had a chip on his shoulder, and he seemed bound and determined to make every monster he came into contact with _detest_ him. That’s what _she_ was getting out of all of this.

“Sound’s like _someone’s_ got something they’re trying to hide, doesn’t it?” Grillby cooed, ignoring Frost’s blatant threats. Grillby stopped, leaving only a few feet between him and Frost. “Sounds _mighty_ suspicious if you ask me.” He snickered, cocking his head. “So tell us, Frosty-boy: were you taking the day off to bang your little lady-friend here? Wouldn’t blame ya if you were. Girl’s got a nice rack on her. I can only imagine how a girl like her might be in the sheets.”

Alphys nearly lost control. This _asshole_! Not only did he have the _audacity_ to _sexually harass_ her, but now he was doing _this_?! Stooping so low as to drag her reputation back down into the dirt with this _show_?! She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to break everything around her. The toxic whispers seeping into the air was gasoline trying its hardest to unleash a wildfire inside of her. This man... this _thing_... he was absolutely _despicable_!

“I will _not_ accept _any_ accusations towards mine staff.” Frost was seething, his words brewing with a venomous tone. “She is a colleague and a friend. Nothing more, nothing less.” His chin raised, his glare as sharp as the kitchen knife. “Now take thine _disgusting_ views _out_ of mine restaurant.”

“Tongue’s still as sharp as ever, Mr. Pines.” He hummed, still blatantly ignoring every one of Frost’s threats. He took the cigarette out of his mouth, crushing the remaining butt and ashes left from it in his palm. The cigarette disappeared into a puff of smoke in his palms, the kickback in his hand almost looking like a small explosion. As he opened his hand back up his palms revealed nothing more than ashes, his fiery hands most likely burning away anything else that would’ve remained. “Rude of you to give your little _pet_ the cold shoulder too.” A molten tongue slid forth out of his mouth, his saliva almost like lava on its tip. “Though I guess you like to live by the same morals your family did, so I shouldn’t be surprised—”

Frost’s cool was officially broken. Gasps resonated from the surrounding bystanders as the ice elemental snatched Grillby by the collar, pulling the fiery other up close. His body began to shift, icy spikes bubbling up across his skin and threatening to tear through the clothes on his back. Even his normally jagged “teeth” were beginning to curl outwards, Frost’s outwards appearance starting to take on a _terrifying_ look.

“ _Keep them **out** of thine **filthy** mouth._”

Grillby, still toting his cocky attitude, was not the least bit intimidated by the front the other was putting on, his crooked smirk only growing wider. “Oh _dear_ , did I hit a _nerve_?” He sang, causing the surrounding whispers and murmurs to amplify. “Tell me where the lie is, Mr. Pines.”

“ _Shut. Thine. Mouth._ ”

“Or _what_ , _prissy boy_?”

“ _Thoust swine—!_ ”

Both of the boys were forcefully shoved apart from each other. Staggering to their feet, they had seen the small yellow monster responsible for their break-up. Alphys managed to work her way between them, going completely unnoticed up until then. Both boys were shocked by her interference, though Grillby recuperated much faster than Frost, returning back to his prior demeanor. Frost had nearly caved in on himself, the icy spikes smoothing back and returning his “skin” back to normal. A jolt of anxiety ripped through Frost as he realized who’d broken up the fight, but before he could push Alphys back out of the fray Grillby’s snide voice cut back in.

“You wantin’ to be a part of the action too, cupcake?” The fire elemental teased, once again sticking his molten tongue out. “Here to protect your boy-toy, babe?”

With a glare that could shoot anyone down on sight, Alphys stared Grillby dead in the eyes. She had _enough_ of his _bullshit_. She stormed up to him, her teeth grinding so hard it was practically sanding down the tips of each tooth. Even with her back to him, Frost knew Alphys had hit her limit. He didn’t know what she was planning to do to Grillby that he himself couldn’t, but _damn_ if that look couldn’t kill someone he didn’t know _what_ would.

 _“You were asked to **leave**.”_ Through clenched teeth Alphys’ seething words slid out, each word accentuated to drive the point home. She had stopped only inches away, fists clenched tightly beside her. _“Go.”_

All Grillby did was laugh at her. “Go? Now _why_ would I do that?” He reached a hand out towards Alphys’ face. “The fun’s only jut begun–”

Grillby’s wrist was snatched before his hand could ever make contact with her. An explosion of electricity burst from Alphys, ensnaring both monsters in its grip. Panicked screeches came from the bystanders, the hairs on all of the furry ones standing on end as static filled the air between the shock victims and the restaurant patrons. A shriek bellowed from the fire elemental as he desperately pulled away from the other’s grip. The hold broke, Grillby staggering backwards and gripping his arm with every bit of strength he could muster.

“ _Fuck!_ ” Grillby spat out, struggling to move as the electricity hindered his movement. The current still coursing through his body could be seen leaping between the different fabrics of his clothes. “The hell–!?”

 ** _“LEAVE!”_** Alphys boomed, earning flinches from the surrounding patrons. She was blinded by her rage, tunnel vision only allowing her burning eyes to look upon the flame elemental in front of her. Some sparks of electricity could still be seen dancing around her body.

Still in shock, Frost could do nothing but stare in disbelief. Everything happened so fast it had taken a moment to register what had even happened. Alphys had pushed Grillby back with her magic...

 _Her magic_!

“You little _bitch_ –!” Grillby hissed, slowly staggering towards the door. He was struggling to move his body, even having to go so far as to throw his weight onto the door to get it open. “Remember this!” Was his final threat before stumbling out of the restaurant.

There was an awkward, stifling silence that lingered throughout the restaurant. The witnesses to the attack were too shocked to make any sudden noise or movement. Even Frost was frozen in place, still startled by the whole encounter that had taken place.

With a loud grunt, Alphys stormed into the back kitchen. That had been enough to prompt Frost to snap out of his daze, following her out to make sure she was okay. He called out to her, but she didn’t look back. Through the kitchen she stormed, cutting straight through and out through the back door where the dumpster was. She slammed the door behind her, stopping Frost from following her further.

With a sodden look, Frost placed a hand on the back door. “Alphys...” He murmured, leaning his forehead in. Despite what had happened, he was very proud of her, how she’d stood up to Grillby and even the fact that she’d used the magic that she herself had said she struggled with. However, with the reactions of the patrons around her, would she think the same? What would the other monsters say after this? Frost hoped that the display would prove her strength to others, that she was not all they made her out to be, but he knew that was an optimist’s way of thinking. The gossiping was more than likely going to escalate from here, calling her violent on top of all of the other nasty things they were saying. That was very likely what had driven Alphys to storm out like she had. All of that work to keep her head down and prove the others wrong had been thrown out the window in a few measly moments.

With a heavy sigh, Frost pulled away from the door. He wanted to go console her, but would she really want him around at a time like this?

**_CRASH!!_ **

The sudden ring of a glass bottle breaking had triggered an automatic response from Frost. He bolted back to the door, throwing it open frantically. The shattering of that glass had triggered a bad memory, his body reacting as it had many years ago: to run towards the danger, towards those in need of saving.

Eyes darted around frantically, looking for imminent danger, but was surprised to see there was none at all. It had taken a moment for his mind and body to wind down and register what was happening. Alphys was sitting on the ground beside the dumpster, her back to the door and her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. The shattered remains of a wine bottle were scattered about her feet, the remaining intact neck resting beside her hip. Frost’s shoulders fell at the sight. Alphys was really taking this hit hard.

“Alphys–”

“Leave me alone.”

The elemental’s brow furrowed with anxiety. He wanted to respect her wishes, but with everything that had transpired accompanied by that strange, cryptic warning the young boy had given him the other day he couldn’t simply leave her alone. Had this been the “misfortune” that was to befall them? Surely not. Grillby was nothing more than an inconvenience trying to worm his way between Frost and his happiness, but while Grillby’s actions didn’t bother _him_ very much it had hit _Alphys_ down to her core. Perhaps the “misfortune” wasn’t meant to be a physical incident, but a mental one instead. He wished that kid could’ve given him more details. He couldn’t dwell on that for too long, though. Alphys was upset and in need of care. He couldn’t leave her be, especially if the threat of her returning to the dump was lingering in the air.

“Dearest, I–”

“ _I said leave me alone_.” She snapped at him, her voice choking mid-sentence.

Frost drew back. What was he to do? It was growing more clear that she wasn’t going to let him help her, but he still didn’t want to abandon her completely. Leaving her there by herself until she recovered seemed _wrong_ , but if she wouldn’t let him do anything else what other options were there?

With a heavy sigh Frost turned back to the door. The best compromise he could think of was to leave her be while checking up on her periodically. No words or anything like that, just a quick peek out the back door to see if she was still there and okay. “Take thy time.” Was all he offered, keeping it short in fear that he might be cut off again.

He hated leaving her there, but honestly he wasn’t sure of what else he could do right now.

* * *

The remainder of the day had held an awkward air to it. Alphys and Frost barely spoke, and at points even avoided eye contact with each other. The stifling air continued even after the shift ended, leaving for an uncomfortable mood back at the house.

Having finally calmed down from the events earlier in the day, Alphys had become silent and distant, trying her best to absorb what had happened. She’d situated herself on the stairs, leaning against the rails as she tried to cope with everything that had transpired. In the heat of the moment, Grillby’s words had managed to push her over the edge, to make her snap and attack him. It was almost automatic, and after she’d let off the steam she finally realized that not only had she surprised herself with her actions, but also the patrons and even Frost. Customers said almost nothing about the two and avoided eye-contact with Alphys whenever they could. Were they scared that she would attack them, too? Maybe they’d just leave her alone from now on, she thought for a fleeting moment before brushing it aside. Of course they wouldn’t. If the talk hadn’t died down by now, chances were it never would.

She closed her eyes, trying to get her mind to think other things, but every moment her thoughts were drifting back to Grillby’s words. It didn’t help that the constant-reminding footsteps of Frost’s presence kept implanting the words Grillby had shot at him into her head. She tried to leave that be, to let the words about Frost fall to the wayside, but the more she tried to ignore it, the more her curious mind hungered for answers. What had Grillby meant by “live by the same morals his family did”? Of all of the things said during that spat, that particular insult seemed to be the one to push Frost over the edge. It only made her more curious as to what his family was like.

She let out a sigh. She was honestly disgusted by the questions roaming around in her head. She had no right to be wondering these things. It was obvious they were things Frost didn’t want anyone else knowing about. She’d spent the last few _months_ living with him and she didn’t even know his _surname_. The man she’d spent the last several months living with, sharing a home and work schedule with him, the man who’d taken care of her through thick and thin, who’d given her so many things and taught her so many new skills... All this time, she thought she was getting closer to him, bonding so closely to him.

Turned out she didn’t know him better than any other monsters in the Underground.

Alphys lowered her head, Frost’s own words from the argument echoing through her mind. That’s right. Just as Frost said, he and she were nothing more than friends. He had no obligation to tell her _anything_. Not that she would want him to tell her anything he wasn’t ready to. Even so, it stung to know that she was living with this man and didn’t even know the bare _basics_ about him. It made her feel shitty. _Should_ she have known this? Should she have at least _asked_ about these things? Yet a part of her was glad that she hadn’t pried about his personal life before. It seemed to be a very private and sensitive subject in his life, and she might’ve been walking a fine line with him if she pressed for answers.

As if on cue, Frost had turned the corner, grabbing Alphys’ attention as he stood silently, avoiding Alphys’ gaze. For a moment she wondered if she was in his way. Almost a split second before she stood up, Frost finally spoke up.

“Alphys…” Looking up the stairs, Frost’s eyes met with hers. She could see pain and reluctance in his eyes. “There’s something I needeth to tell thee—”

“Stop.” Alphys cut him off. “If this is about the comments Grillby made about your family, don’t tell me about them. I don’t want you explaining such personal things because you feel obligated to.” She paused, her eyes averting Frost’s. Admittedly, it was a bit painful to say this to him. She’d wanted to know more about Frost, to get to see who the man behind the counter _really_ was, but she wasn’t about to _force_ the answers out of him, no matter how badly she wanted them. “Tell me about your family whenyou _want_ to, not because you felt like you _had_ to.” She sighed. “Same with any other personal issues.” Alphys stood up from the step. “I’m sorry for the way I behaved earlier.” She gave a light bow. “It was unbecoming of me. I will do my best to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

“Don’t apologize.” He muttered, and though his words were genuine his body language still gave a stand-offish feel, his eyes wandering away once more. “Thou had stood up for thyself when being harassed. I understand.”

Alphys’ posture lifted, but her expression did not follow. The short answer was enough to tell her that he didn’t want to be talking about any of this. It didn’t matter to her–she didn’t want to talk about it either. With another downtrodden sigh, she began to turn. “I’m going to bed.” She told him. At this point she was so _drained_ from everything that had happened that she just wanted to be alone, away from everything else. A few steps up the stairs, she stopped. She turned her back to Frost, hesitating before taking her leave. “For what it’s worth,” she murmured, “I think Pines is a lovely name.”

Frost immediately huffed, turning his own head away. “It’s a dead name that belongs to dead monsters.” His voice was cold and empty. It was a tone she’d never heard from the elemental before, but at this point, Alphys was too tired to care. “Thou hath no need to compliment the dead.”

With her back still turned, Alphys’ shoulders fell. She didn’t know why she even _bothered_ trying to make the situation any better. What difference could _she_ honestly make?

“Good night, Frost.”


End file.
